Maelstrom Elements
by YatsuKat
Summary: Naruto, as unpredictable as ever, is gone. In his place, are six brothers. Hopefully nothing really bad comes from thi-"Oh please, like that's going to happen." "PINKIE!"
1. Chapter 1

**To newcomers, hello. To veteran readers, welcome to another. YatsuKat here, this time with a MLP/Naruto story actually.**

 **First off, in regards to this, I'd like to point out the MLP/Harry Potter story 'Six' by Flitty. A pretty good story, and actually part of what brought this one on.**

 **Secondly, for the moment, this will be updated similarly to 'Dark Side of Justice,' but won't be quite as explicit/implicit/etc. Biggest thing on that front would really be the pre-story scene I'll have the characters bring up on occasion. So don't expect too much if that is what you prefer.**

 **Finally, backing up a bit to the 'influence' I mentioned, here's a small clue for the moment: If six guys, who were once one single guy, had different girlfriends from each other, would it be called a harem or a nuclear relationship?**

 **Don't own MLP or Naruto, by the way.**

Vengeful Hellfire...is Pink?

Dark clouds hung over the place, but the village known as Konohagakure no Sato, or simply Konoha, wasn't concerned. It wasn't even coming close to actual rain or thunder, so the Kyubi Festival was in full swing the 11th in a row since the reason for the festival happened. Granted, they didn't have a mob break out like before, but otherwise, things were pretty well standard practice for them.

But the change to the normal routine for the festival attendees came during the reenactment. As the actor representing the hero, the Fourth Hokage, was about ready to face off against the representation of the nine-tailed fox-like monster known as Kyubi, a young girl with dull, unkempt pink hair somewhat swayed her way onto the stage between them. Her clothes were about the same state as her hair.

 **[Hunchback of Notre Dame – Hellfire (use 'Hellfire (animatic) [Ocs included]' for tune)]**

She seemed to not notice much of anything, especially when she turned to the Hokage actor and surprised everyone when she started singing.

 _"I'm sorry, Sun Child, I may no've been a helpful friend. On my honor, I am justly shamed._ " Her words confused a good many of the villagers that witnessed it, but mostly they were curious as to just what was happening, " _E'en still, Sun Child, you know I'm so much better than the common, vulgar, weak licentious crowd._ " Now a few were starting to feel a bit insulted, but a select few were getting a bit concerned with where she was going with this, " _Please tell me, Sun Child, why're you still standing there? Why your skylight eyes still drown my soul?_ " She wrapped her arms around her slim frame, " _I feel you. I see you! The sun caught in your golden hair, is blazing in me out of all control!_ "

Now people were openly concerned with how the girl was acting, not quite caring anymore about the reenactment as she took a step back and her eyes widened a bit. " _Like fire! Hellfire! This fire in my skin._ " The girl pulled out a piece of orange cloth stained with some blood and caressed it with her cheek, eyes beginning to water, " _Is turning me to sin._ "

Just as she went silent, she slumped onto her knees, cloth still in her hands. But what surprised the onlookers was when a silent flash of lightning momentarily blinded them, and a seal array suddenly appeared underneath the model Kyubi, which started moving on its own. The girl's next words ensured that everyone watching were starting to feel fear towards her. No one really noticed the sky growing darker with thunderclouds in response to her actions.

" _Its not my fault! I'm not to blame! Kyubi, it's my father! He's the one who set this flame._ " She cried in anger and fear, gesturing out to the crowd, coincidentally where said man was watching, " _It's not my fault, if men like him, are more a monster than a man!_ "

With that, the strange sight became even stranger, when the model fox roared and energy started pouring into the seal beneath it. The girl then tucked the bloodied cloth into her chest before taking out a knife and cutting her hand with it.

" _Forgive me, Sun Child. All you ever did was care, even for this village of fools._ " She threw the dripping blood at the seal, causing it to glow as well as the knife. " _But look at what they've done to you! Justice needs to be served! This crime can not be allowed to stay._ "

Just then, a few people came up on the stage, careful to stay far enough away to not spook her. One of them, a woman wearing a masking designed like a cat, spoke in a soft voice to show she wasn't a threat.

"Haruno Sakura." The name seemed to calm the girl down enough to continue, "We ask that you come with us. You need help."

The last three words she spoke sparked a response from the pinked haired girl, officially identified as Sakura, but it wasn't the response that the woman wanted.

"I...need help? Where was that help when my father destroyed the sun? I don't care what makes him pay," she turned an angry face to the woman, "even if I have to burn down Konoha to do it!"

" _Hellfire. Darkfire. Now daddy, it's your turn. Your actions are dire. To pay, you will burn!_ " Sakura then caught everyone off guard by turning the knife in her hand, and stabbing both the cloth and her chest with enough force to stagger back into the seal array. Falling to her hands for a bit, the seal started moving up onto her, transferring the accumulated energy into the girl's body.

As the seal finished, the energy started making visible changes to Sakura's body. Her fingers grew claws as her arms developed feathers, while her feet gained an extra appendage before doing similar to her fingers. Her hair grew and filled out, stopping at the small of her back like a mane of sorts, while it and her skin took on darker shades of red. The final changes was in her face, when her eyes gained a bit of a narrow slant and slit pupils, her nose shrunk a bit and making it harder to notice, while her canines became fangs. A fiery aura seemed to draw all other lights into it except the natural light coming the the thunderbolts over head that were by now plain as day, intensifying as she started floating up above the crowd. All the while, she sang one last time.

" _Kami have mercy on him. Kami have mercy on me. But for his crime...he...will...BURN!_ "

As Sakura's show went on, no one noticed when a dirty-blonde woman quickly made her way away from the crowd and to a fence separated by an over hang sign, with a barn a little ways in beyond it. Running into the barn, she came up to a pretty large horse in one of the stalls.

"Big Mac." she said, huffing a bit from exertion and anxiety as she got closer, "I need your help. My daughter's gone insane, and the entirety of Konoha is at risk."

That seemed to rile up the horse, but thankfully not enough to make the woman's attempt to get on futile.

"We need to get Sunset, he's the only one who can talk sense into her." she explained as she finally got on, having no time to put anything such as a saddle on the horse. Just in time, too, seeing as that was when Big Mac rushed on out of there, heading for the village gates to find the one known as Sunset.

However, the gallop out of the village quickly became a chase as fiery feathers started raining down after them that turned into small explosions that somehow sprouted thorny vines that burned the few that touched them. The woman held on for dear life as the horse ran, seeing the feathers in their wake and hearing the occasional cry of panic from the villagers back near Sakura, as well as the laughter from said girl. Tears flew from her eyes as she imagined the horror that her daughter was unleashing on their home in search of her father.

 _Sakura._ She thought in sadness at what Sakura had willingly become. _I sure hope that Sunset can help set things right. I don't want to lose you as well, my dear child._

Big Mac just crossed the gates as the last of the feathers fell, fully ensnaring Konoha in a thorny prison as Sakura's voice echoed out into the night.

" **If Haruno Fumihiro isn't dead by dawn, and by my hands, your lives will be forfeit until that happens.** "

 _Why exactly do I have this feeling that something is very wrong with Sakura right now?_ Sunset, a boy with a slight golden tan to his shirtless chest and red hair with violet highlights spread throughout, wondered.

Even though it was night in a village somewhat situated between Konoha and the Capitol, he couldn't sleep, unlike his primary traveling companion the Hokage. The old man was sound asleep in the room next door, while parts of their escorting guard weren't to keep an eye out. So there wasn't much for the boy to do at that moment but think back to a few old memories, such as the when he snapped at Sakura after getting out of the hospital.

 _After that incident._ He thought before quickly shaking his head, not wanting to think about the moment that destroyed his former self and created he and his brothers. Let alone how he acted afterwards, to what he was truly starting to realize was just Sakura trying to apologize for being the bait. _Not like I originally thought. Sigh, I just hope I can apologize in time._

It was at that moment when he heard the faint sound of Big Macintosh, his farming brother's horse, coming closer at a fast pace. He looked out the room window to just see said horse closing in, but instead of any of his siblings, it was a woman he easily recognized in the darkness.

"Haruno Mebuki?" he exclaimed in wonder, "What's she want?"

Pulling on a shirt, he jumped out the window to intercept the pair.

Pulling up near the boy, Mebuki saw him and started talking, although her early upheaval left her pretty tired. "Sunset! It's Sakura."

Sunset quirked an eyebrow at both the coincidence and the woman's state. "What's wrong?"

"She's gone insane." Mebuki got out as she was helped down, "She's taken Konoha captive, and will start killing if she doesn't personally kill her father by dawn. She was saying something about him destroying the sun as well."

By then, the Hokage was awake and moving to them, but they all were shocked at what they had just heard from her lips. Sakura was holding Konoha hostage?! But it struck Sunset worst of all, realizing just what was the reason behind it all.

"It's all my fault." Sunset muttered out aloud, catching everyone's attention.

"What're you talking about, Sun?" asked the Hokage, before the boy started running off.  
Sunset stuck to just simply shouting while running off. "She means Naruto!"

He only had until dawn to try and fix things, so he needed to hurry and get back to Konoha before then.

 _I just hope that the others can hold her off long enough. Otherwise, even for Sakura, it'll be too late. So I better not hear the drums of war!_

 **That's right, this starts off with Sakura being insane, but there is a solid reason behind it. Which will be explained next chapter, but I won't be going into any real detail beyond a summary to give you an idea of what happened. Just note that it involved Naruto and Sakura, but on separate fronts.**

 **Also, for the record, her transformed state looks like Bakugan's Ventus Harpus (roughly).**

 **As for Sunset and his mentioned brothers, they are basically the full male versions of the Mane Six, with Twilight being fused with Sunset to create Sunset Sparkle. That's mainly to help translate Twilight into a male, but there's also how they came to be as well.**

 **So nothing like 'Rari (Male Rarity) wears make up and dresses' or really any of them. Closest will be more 'Avatar the Last Airbender Sokka face paint' in comparison. Same can't be quite said for things such as simple shopping, though.**

 **Here are their names so far:**

 **Sparkle Sunset (Twilight + Sunset)**

 **Rari/Rare (Rare's in English)**

 **Apple Jack (Split name to make Apple the family name)**

 **'Rainbow' Dash ('Rainbow' is a title instead of a name)**

 **Fluttershy (not sure if it's like this in canon, but his is centered around things like 'The Butterfly Effect,' especially considering The Stare.)**

 **Pinkie Pie (no real difference for that name, while 'Pinkamena Diane Pie' doesn't exist)**

 **As for professions/abilities, just really add 'Shinobi' to Sunset and 'Chakra' to the rest. Otherwise, same as canon.**

 **Until next time. Please let me know what you think.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Hello, again.**

 **We'll still be having a few songs as part of the intro, but it will help introduce some of the other main characters, such as Sunset's brothers. This will also be giving a few more details about the incident that create Sunset and the others, as well as Sakura's insanity.**

 **Don't own MLP or Naruto, by the way.**

Open up your eyes, and sound the drums of war!

Sakura stared down at the masses scurrying around Konoha, trying to either get to safety or fulfill her demand. Sakura smiled darkly as she thought about how her goal was close at hand.

 _It isn't like any of them are going to be getting out, after all._ Thought Sakura, _Especially if they want Konoha, Hanabi, or Konohamaru safe._

As insurance, not only did she envelope the village in her special burning, thorny vines, she had taken two of the most prominent children in the village as hostages, planning on killing them first in front of the others if they didn't get her father for her. Her biggest concerns, though, would be Hanabi's father, if the villagers actually notice/side with her father, and Sunset's brothers.

Fluttershy was the first to show up after Sunset, honestly caught Sakura off guard with his hair. Light pink hair, a bit of a yellow tint to his skin, and wearing a green-and-brown kimono and geta primarily, he was the shyest of the set for the most part. But once he found himself in the Inzuka vet compound, he became ecstatic, easily becoming an assistant there and working his way up the ranks _fast._ It stunned the Inuzuka clan head, Tsume, and caught the interest of her daughter, Hana. Even more so when other animals started showing up, docile as could be, from both outside the village and inside _the freaking Forest of Death of all places!_

Even then, he would be one of the kindest kids around the village, and pretty much every one knew it. At least until one drunken idiot decided on interrupting his letting a couple of puppies play with a few kids, with Tsume's permission for the play time. He had nearly drove a couple to tears when Fluttershy's eyes turned red as he stared the man down. To make things even worse for the drunkard, he was also scolding him about his actions, and it all led to the drunk literally crying as he ran straight over to the ANBU that appeared nearby, wanting the shinobi to take him away for his punishment.

Sakura couldn't help but chuckle a bit at the memory. _It's always the quiet ones, isn't it._

Apple Jack and Dash were next to appear, and they were pretty peculiar to Konoha.

Jack had blond hair, with an orange tint to his skin, but his voice and clothing were what struck everyone. Primarily, he wore boots, a new style of pants he called 'jeans,' a white shirt with a darker green vest over it, and a hat called a fedora. As for his voice, he spoke in a strange accent that no one could quite pick out, but it certainly got the attention of a good many girls around Konoha. But what kept people from distrusting him was when he, within a couple of days, somehow managed to start a rather successful apple orchard affectionately called "Sweet Apple Acres," and was about as stubborn and honest about his dealings as the cycle of night and day. People also brought up rumors that he might have access to the Shodaime Hokage's kekkai genkai, at least from him being so good with plants. No one had yet to really test out that theory yet.

Sakura was still surprised, but also angry, at how easily Hinata 'seemed' to switch from Naruto toJack, even becoming a bit more bold herself from it.

In the meantime, Dash, more commonly known as 'Rainbow' Dash, had shocked everyone with having a blue skin tint and _rainbow colored hair._ The rest of his appearance was much simpler in comparison, being reinforced shoes, somewhat form-fitting black pants, a white shirt, and a usually open blue hooded jacket. Dash did, however, exhibit a rather spunky, competitive, and outgoing attitude towards life and friends, easily rushing in to help out if someone needed his help. Although he did take a bit for those that got on his nerves. What astounded everyone, was the incident that gave him a job as a courier, and left a _rainbow-colored blur in his wake_. Even at such a young age, he was incredibly fast, even catching the attentions of Might Guy and Rock Lee.

Rarity was next, and caught Yamanaka Ino instantly. Silky purple hair in a ponytail, his skin was more of a pearl-like pale, and seemed to shine a bit in the light. His clothes consisted of a more purple and silver kimono, in comparison to Fluttershy's own, with stylish purple boots and silver gloves. What was confusing to most was how he could be pretty vain, but could also be rather generous when people needed help, particularly in regards to fashion, clothes/blankets/fabrics, or decorations. He ended getting an apprenticeship with Ino's favorite clothing shop, and ultimately turned it into _the_ shop for even the Daimyo once it was discovered that he could create crystals to add in to the items on sale, but kept their price from going up.

Sakura wasn't the only one that was perplexed by that.

Pinkie Pie was the final one to show up, but the fastest in gaining the trust of the villagers. A wild mane of magenta hair, a lighter pink tint, he wore blue slippers, a blue, pink, and white plaid shirt, and periwinkle purple pants. He usually works alongside the Ichiraku's, either helping them with their ramen stand, or baking a selection of pastrie/cakes/cookies to sell as well.

Even Sakura had a tough time staying angry around Pinkie, but was able to escape his antics and parties ever since so far.

What certainly helped spread happiness, was Pinkie's stubborn antics in both party-throwing and being comical to those around him, to the point that some have even asked him, "Just what are you on, kid? 'Cause I want some of that." Pinkie didn't even need chakra to pretty much do the impossible on occasion, and 'impossible' was coined by the shinobi.

Sakura's thoughts were interrupted when Konohamaru cried out "Why are you doing this?! Let us go!"

She chuckled darkly. " **Why? I say it's about time someone got at least a form of justice for the Sun Child, Uzumaki Naruto.** "

"Naruto?" asked Konohamaru, confused, "What does he have to do with this?

" **Everything.** " Sakura replied, turning to face the two tied up kids on the roof with her, " **It was he who my father and his 'friends' destroyed, and took away from me. Just like Ino.** "

Hanabi scoffed. "Are you sure it isn't you betraying him instead?"

That angered Sakura enough to kick the pole the two were tied to.

" **Don't! Pin this on me.** " She growled at them before grabbing their chins to face her, " **You have no idea of what happened! You have no-** " she stopped and calmed down, remembering who she was talking to, " **Hmph. It's not like either of you kids would know anyways. So innocent of the way of things beyond your sheltered lives.** " she released the two, backing up a few steps before opening her mouth again, this time being heard throughout the entire village somehow.

 **[Open Up Your Eyes – Emily Blunt (the singer)]**

" _I_ ** _t's time you learned a lesson. It's time that you understand._** " Sakura sang, still facing the two, " ** _Don't ever count on anybody else, In this or any other land._** " She turned as she continued, " ** _I once hoped for friendship. To find someone who'd see just me._** " Her expression darkened as she looked out away from her primary audience, " ** _But those were childish wishes, Of someone too blind to see._** " Sakura turned around and raised her arms, " ** _Open up your eyes!_** "She placed her hands on their shoulders, " ** _See the truth in your last 'our. Me among the mighty. You caged by my po'er._** " She grabbed hold of their chins again, " ** _Open up your eyes! Give up your sweet fantasyland. It's time to grow up, and get wise. Come now, little ones. Open up your eyes._** "

Next thing either Hanabi or Konohamaru knew, they seemed to be drawn into Sakura's eyes, and into the very memories of the incident that started all of this.

 _It was night time, and a still human Sakura was seen, happy as she dragged an happy yet a bit hesitant Naruto behind her. Her voice then came up again._

 _"_ **We all start out the same, with simple naive trust.** _" The past Sakura and Naruto arrived at Sakura's house, where Naruto's hesitance reared up and stopped them. Sakura didn't quite take that decision, and pulled him in. "_ **Shielded from the many ways, that life's not fair or just.** _"_

 _Inside, however, when both face inwards, their happiness turned to fear when they saw Sakura's father and a few other men come towards them. Sakura was forced away, leaving Naruto as a silhouette. "_ **But then there comes a moment. A simple truth that you must face.** _" She was left watching as Naruto was attacked by the men, before the scene went black with a few splotches of blood. "_ **If you place trust in others, you'll never find your place.** _"_

 _When the scene came back, Hanabi and Konohamaru saw a hospital being open and Sakura tossed out, leaving just enough time to see an angry Sunset within before it closed. Sakura, on the other hand, picked herself shakily before running off sobbing as their classmates arrived. It quickly changed to Sakura arriving at her home, and noticing a kunai on the table with some blood on it. Recognizing it from the icident, she gingerly picked it up. "_ **And as you take that first step, upon a path that's always known.** _" Sakura's face grew incredibly angry, before she silently screamed and threw the kunai at a picture of her father's head. "_ **You see it all so clearly: The best way to survive is all alone.** _"_

 _As they drew in on the picture, the vision finally ended._

Hanabi and Konohamaru were speechless at what they had just witnessed. While they didn't see what exactly happened to Naruto, they did see enough to understand Sakura's plight. The two kids started giving up hope as Sakura still continued her song. " ** _Open up your eyes! See the truth in your last 'our. Me among the mighty. You caged by my po'er._** "

A vine came up, grabbed the pole they were tied to, and raised them out into the open air. Sakura flew up on top of the vine as it did that. " ** _Open up your eyes, and behold the fading light._** " She pulled them off the pole and hung them from the vine, ensuring that they wouldn't fall accidentally, " ** _It's time to grow up, and get wise. Come_** **_now, little ones. Open up your eyes._** " When they finally stopped moving, she finished singing, calling out to the rest of the world as she raised her arms, " ** _Open up your eyes!_** "

When she finished, she squatted there above the two kids, who looked down in sadness.

"For whatever it's worth," said Hanabi after a few moments, "we're sorry you went through that alone."

"I saw the truth." said Sakura, "He was making a copy of himself in me, and Naruto paid the price. Now I'm the only one that's trying to keep Naruto's memory alive."

"Your not-" whatever Hanabi was about to say was cut off when the voice of her father called out to them from a somewhat distant roof, "Sakura! We got him!"

Sakura noticed the horizon and called back, "Bring him to me, but you better hurry. Your running out of time."

As if on cue, the sun fully started showing on the horizon, catching everyone's attention. However, two things connected to it caught their attention in particular.

"That fake's brighter than it's been for a while." Sakura idly noted one of them, but Hanabi and Konohamaru note the other between them.

"You think it might be..." Konohamaru asked, letting it hang.

"Let us hope so, Kono." said Hanabi, hoping that it was indeed him they managed to see, "He probably has the best chance."

 _Sunset...please...hurry. For all of us._

*** **Sunset** ***

Sunset was barely keeping it together, having used chakra-enhanced speed to run all the way to one of the hills surrounding Konoha, somehow managing to get on the path that led to the main gate. **(I have no idea how the village is actually oriented, so just roll with it.)**

Catching some of his breath back, he noticed the sunlight starting to creep up behind him. _Oh please tell me I'm not too late._

 _You will if you don't keep moving._ A part of him responded.

 _But...huff...I pretty well tapped myself out making it this far._ He reminded of his current state.

 _...You do recall that you can manipulate nature chakra, right?_ Came the retort, and Sunset felt like smacking himself for forgetting.

"I completely forgot that." he said out loud, calming down to begin. After a moment or so, he smiled, feeling the energy coming in to his body, "Now I should have enough for the final stretch."

"What are you talking about?" Sunset heard behind him, catching him before he could continue.

He simply quipped, "No time to talk, got to stop Sakura." before running again. Although, looking back on that, Sunset didn't quite know if he actually did here drums or not.

 **[Savages – Pochahontas (after the sunrise, and the / is to help indicate Konoha while normal is Sunset)]**

"/ _This will be the day!_ Bring him here, now!/" echoed out to Sunset and his new companion, "/ _This will be the morning._ Just hang on, your two!/"

That spurned Sunset on even more. " _I don't know what I can do. Still I know I've got to try._ "

"/ _Now I'll make him pay._ /" By now, Sunset's companion, a man with a sizeable amount of white hair, was getting rather paranoid as to what was going on. Considering what he was hearing, someone was planning an execution, and the kid he was running after was trying to do something about it.

 _Most likely to stop it from what he sang._ He thought.

" _Eagle help my feet to fly._ " The man couldn't help but raise an eyebrow as right after those words, Sunset seemed to speed up a bit. Not much, but enough.

"/ _No sacrifice to make._ /" _Hiashi? What's his connection to all of this?_

" _Mountain help my heart be great._ " while that didn't quite do anything, Sunset did seemed to gain a stronger stride to his movements, " _Gods of the heavens and earth, please don't let it be too late!_ "

As the two got closer, they could clearly the ruins of the main gates from the forest of vines, as well as some more echoes coming from the village that sounded like "/- _filthy, stinking, savages! Do not let her kill them!_ /"

"Okay, seriously, what the heck have I missed?!" demanded the man, to no one in particular. _I really should've came back the first chance I got when Sensei sent that letter._

As they got into the village, the two saw a mob of people pulling something a ways off from them. The man saw that the mob was pulling Councilman Fumihiro, and they were heading towards a big vine that had two kids hanging from it while a harpy was on top for some reason. Said Harpy, after a bit, called out, " _What's taking you so long? You want the kiddies back? I want him to slack!_ "

" _How loud are the cries for war?_ " Sunset had just managed to arrive as the mob forced Fumihiro to the ground, ready for Sakura. As she moved to attack, Sunset forced one last boost to make it in time. " _Is the death of life and love, carried in the crying for war?!_ "

Just as the song ended, Sunset took out two kunai and blocked Sakura, forcing her back in shock.

"Sunset?!" she exclaimed, bewildered that he of all people would stop her, "What are you doing?!"

"Stopping you from doing something completely stupid." said Sunset.

"Stupid?!" cried out Sakura, angered beyond belief, "He's the one that killed Naruto!"

Sunset's response stopped her anger cold. "But he's not the one who hurt you."

That left the listeners confused as to what was going on, except for Hanabi and Konohamaru. They recalled what they had seen from Sakura, and began to have an idea as to what they were talking about. They just had no idea of the full story.

After a minute or so of silence, Sunset continued. "I was a hurt and broken fool, and ended up blaming you when you were just as much a victim as I was. But now I see the truth. He will get what's coming to him, I assure you. But please, leave him to the Hokage. If there is anyone that should fall by your hand." he put away the kunai and got on his knees, "It's me."

That threw Sakura especially for a loop. "What are you talking about?"

"I was the one to hurt you. I was the one to make you snap and do all this. I...am the one not deserving of friends. And...I'm sorry."

Sunset went quiet after that, clearly finished.

Sakura was conflicted. Doubt about her course of action started seeping into her heart, wondering if what she tried to do to Fumihiro was really the right thing to do. Visibly troubled, she shakily took out a kunai of her own. This one, the two kids recognized as the one that was in the vision. She raised it to stab Sunset, but her resolve finally started truly breaking, holding her from actually delivering the death blow. Tears started blocking her sight, frustrating her with her 'weakness.'

After what seemed like an age, Sakura finally dropped, crying on her own knees in front of Sunset. The boy, seeing this, gently reached out and brought the girl in for a hug.

"I just...I just wanted Naruto back." sobbed Sakura.

"I wish I knew that before," said Sunset, tearing up a bit as well, "but that doesn't matter now. Even if the original Naruto is gone, the pieces are still around. We'll just have to pick up the slack that he left behind. But I promise you," he brought her up to face him, "Naruto's legacy will never die."

Fumihiro finally gathered enough courage to speak out, albeit in anger, "That's what this is all about? Me finally finishing the job with that demon brat?! You bi-"

He was suddenly smacked across the head, cutting him off. "No swearing, ruffian. There are children in earshot!"

Sunset and Sakura looked up to notice Rarity, or Rare as he prefers, was the one that smacked Sakura's father. And alongside him were Sunset's other brothers.

Dash smirked. "About time you set things straight, Sun."

"Ah got ter be honest, brother." Jack spoke, "Ah'm glad you got here in time."

Sunset scratched the back of his head. "Yeah, I am too."

Konohamaru then noticed something happening to the six boys. Each were starting to give off a minute glow, all different colors. What made it even stranger in the child's eyes was when Sunset's glow started turning Sakura back to normal.

"Hey, guys." he asked, "How are you doing that?"

Noticing what he was indicating, Sunset started having an idea.

"Guys, gather round now." he said, getting the other to form a circle, "You know how Sakura had called Naruto 'Sun Child?'"

The five nodded, wondering what he was getting at. Sakura was little better off than they were.

Sunset placed his hand out in front of him, in the middle of the circle. "Let's see just how close we can 'mimic' that?"

Pinkie was the first to place his hand down, a big smile on his face as he giggled out, "Someone's got to keep the laughs coming, after all."

Dash placed his down next, saying, "What the heck, it'd be incredibly boring without you guys anyway."

Noticing the glows growing stronger with each hand placed down, Jack placed his own, saying, "Could be a bit more direct, but at least yer honest."

Rare and Fluttershy joined together, not needing any words to show their agreement. That's when it happened. The glows coming from the six, they finally coalesced and started spreading outwards over the village, catching everyone off guard as it permeated the vines, Sakura, and whatever rubble was created from the earlier chaos. While it didn't do much for the rubble, the vines either disintegrated or seemed to merge with buildings or local plants, while Sakura was returned to full human form. Although she did have a bit of an upgrade left behind from it.

As one, they raised their hands up, focusing the rainbow lights and energy upwards before it seemed to explode and disperse, finally disappearing from the boys as well. Dropping down, it was pretty easy to tell they were tired from...whatever they did.

Thankfully, for Hanabi and Konohamaru, they were caught by Hiashi before landing on the ground. After getting out of the ropes, they, alongside Sakura, Hinata, Ino, and Hana, ran over to check on the boys.

"You alright?" Sakura asked for them, getting a round of nods. Smiling, she then said, "Good."

"That's not the only thing." Hana said, bring their attention to the surrounding village, "Not much is left in fixing the village."

Looking around, they all noticed the now lack of vines, as well as Sakura being back to normal. Sunset and Sakura in particular were happy with that last fact.

Pinkie suddenly then appeared sitting on the head of the man that came with Sunset, looking upside down into his face. "Who'sthis,Sunset?He'sobviouslyaKonohashinobi,buthe'sneverbeenaroundbefore-"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, calm down!" said man cried out while pulling Pinkie down from on top of him, having no clue how he did that without him noticing, "How'd you get up there, anyway?"

"It's Pinkie, don't think about it." Dash said, eyes narrowing, "But he is correct, old man. Who are you?"

The answer came from Hana, "Jiraiya-sama, the Toad Sage and the Sandaime's student. Also a major pervert."

But just as Jiraiya was about to respond to that, Fluttershy started dishing out his Stare as he remembered something that he found by accident during one trip to the hospital's volunteer section. "And Naruto's godfather."

Sakura, Hinata, and Shy's brothers quickly grew angry at his words. This man was Naruto's godfather, and yet only showed his face now of all times? Where was he when Naruto needed him?!

"So, 'godfather,'" started Sunset as the group moved towards the man, "would you mind ever so kindly, to tell us in a more private setting just where have you been."

"You never wrote." said Rare, hands gaining a crystalline cover.

"You never popped in." said Dash, eyes sparking.

"And you weren't there when Fumihiro hurt Naruto so bad, he became these six boys in front of you." Sakura and Hinata together.

By then, even Ino and Hana started gaining a gleam in their eyes that scared Jiraiya, who couldn't move fast enough to try and escape before the group of six boys and four girls caught him and dragged him off, leaving Hiashi, Hanabi, and Konohamaru alone to spearhead the process of rebuilding.

Even in his anger, Fumihiro joined practically everyone else in slightly shuddering and thinking something along the lines of, _Even Pinkie and Fluttershy? He's in trouble._

Although he quickly went back to angry when the village's elite, known as ANBU, took him away to execute him in private.

 **Now, to warn you, they will be other times when music shows up, but not quite as much as this time. So there will be times when no music shows up, instead of songs every chapter.**

 **Fumihiro will no longer be a part of this story (and that name was just really for convenience), but Jiraiya will still be around. He's just here in this chapter for a bit of fun at the end.**

 **Until next time. Please let me know what you think.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Hello, again.**

 **Now we'll be starting on canon Naruto, as well as a few personal quirks I want to put in myself.**

 **Don't own MLP or Naruto, by the way.**

'Leave my Apple Cider alone!'

"Morning, Jack. Sun up yet?"

It's been about seven months since the Harpy Incident, as it was eventually called, and things had gotten a lot better for Konoha.

While it took a while for some to truly trust Sakura and Mebuki again, Sunset and his brothers were helpful in getting people to do so. The mother/daughter pair we usually seen near at least one of the boys, but normally Sunset due to he and Sakura being in the Academy together. Mebuki became one of the first to support them during any council meeting. Sakura, in the meantime, wanted to go further with proving that it was in the past, and tended to volunteer whenever she could.

Somehow, this led to her and Hinata being recruited as future medic nins, but she certainly wasn't complaining. Certainly a lot better than her insanity spell continuing, in her opinion.

As for the brothers, well, let's take a look:

Fluttershy, while still quiet and timid, rose to a pretty substantial place in the kennels. It was to the point that Tsume had to build a separate building to serve as an animal shelter after people started bringing more than just pets on over, and left him in charge. Of course, that ended up with Hana spending more time working there with Shy instead of the main building, but Tsume saw this as a chance to get her son, Kiba, to start learning the family side trade.

Rarity, or Rare as he preferred, became a pretty big celebrity with both the girls of Konoha and the Daimyo's court. He had fainted the lord of Hi no Kuni himself had actually walked in one time and requested from him personally. Unfortunately, that led to Sunset having to learn fuinjutsu in order to keep both fangirls and jealous competitors from him. Suffice it to say, he pretty well became the go to person for formal decorations in Konoha, especially when it called for some type of crystalline look to it.

Dash and Pinkie were a bit of a different case. The pair ended up gaining a bit of a habit of pranks, occasionally popping one on random citizen. Sunset did make sure that they knew not to do any that could actually hurt. Dash did also gain a rivalry with a shinobi named Rock Lee, which has gotten on numerous nerves the times it got out of hand. That annoyed Sunset and Jack to no end, as they were usually the ones stuck having to deal with it. They would've also had to deal with Pinkie as well, if he didn't gain a bit of an obsession with 'getting the emo out of Mr. Ducky,' aka Uchiha Sasuke.

They weren't about to do anything to stop that.

Rare wasn't the only one to receive a visit and request from the Daimyo, once the man had tasted cider from Sweet Apple Acres. Jack was caught by surprise one day, out among the trees, when the Hokage came up with the Daimyo and called him over for a break. Knowing better than to argue with those two men, he brought them into the house and passed out a couple of glasses of apple cider. Ultimately, next thing he knew, he was getting a request to send at least a barrel of cider and a basket of apples to the capital for the Daimyo.

He was going to have to expand the place next year to make sure that it wasn't quite so much an issue.

As for Sunset...

"Howdy, Sakura. Sorry, but he ain't up quite yet, last I checked." responded Jack to Sakura's greeting and question, "Then again, I have been out here fer a bit, so that could've changed. Thankfully, got some Zap Cider waiting."

Sakura unconsciously let out a small breath of relief at that last part. While Sunset has been a great help, he has occasionally annoyed people once he got started on a book of some sort. Outside of training or helping out at the house, he could be found offering his time at the library. However, it has led to an interesting/irritating habit to develop in him. He can end up staying up late reading, and needed a jump-start in the morning. Thankfully, all that was really needed was a glass of cider, with a hint of lightning chakra thrown in, but it did lead to an incident that no one wanted to happen.

Even the Hokage, once he found out.

"Well, I mainly wanted to make sure that he was ready in time for the exams today." Sakura said, "Today is the day, after all."

Sakura then headed on inside, and came across Shy and Pinkie in the kitchen getting breakfast ready. The girl couldn't help but drool a little at the prospect of a meal from both of them. Shy was the first to notice her.

"Oh, Sakura!" he exclaimed, somewhat startled, "You're early."

"Yeah." Sakura answered, "The Graduation Exams are today, and I wanted to make sure Sun was there. Better safe than sorry."

"I already have the graduation party ready and waiting for afterwards." said Pinkie, carrying a few dishes out to the table, "Just be sure to keep an eye on Mizuki. People have a tendency to place him as a really big and subtle meanie during the exams."

While it did confuse the two, Shy and Sakura quickly shook it off, knowing that it wouldn't have helped if they tried to figure him out right then and there. Sakura in particular would just stick to watching out for Mizuki and see just what Pinkie meant then.

Just then, the three heard a groan come from the stairs. They turned and saw Sunset arriving at the bottom.

Sakura sighed as she pinched the bridge of her nose. _He fell asleep in his clothes again._

Sunset, or Sun, was wearing a set of clothes designed by Rarity, and Sakura certainly liked it a lot. Black shinobi pants with weapon pouches sewn into the sides (which became a hit with both civilians and shinobi, not having to strap on pouches to carry at least certain items), and an open jacket that had a purple night sky in the front that cleanly became magenta stars surrounding a sunset on the back covering a red shirt. Black boot-like shinobi sandals completed his look.

The problem, however, was that he looked completely dead as he ambled over to where the cider Jack had mentioned was waiting.

None of them bothered to talk to him, knowing that he wouldn't be coherent in any manner until he gets his morning cup. _Hinata_ even one timed even said something that would've anyone's attention instantly, and yet he didn't notice. So they quickly agreed not to talk to him until afterwards, sticking to one of them directing him to a better spot than in the kitchen. Unfortunately, they weren't quite able to get to him in time before a loud boom sounded, right before a big thud hit the house, rattling things enough for the cider to splash on Sunset, freezing him in place.

"What was...that..." Sakura asked before noticing Sun, "Oh no."

Sun's eyebrow was twitching like crazy as his hand started squeezing a bit. Sakura managed to get his cup out of his hand in time, but couldn't quite get him an extra cup before he mechanically shuffled his way to the nearby door leading to the outside from the kitchen. Outside, they found Dash trying to quickly pick a dazed Lee up. When the rainbow-haired boy notice them, he stopped moving and started sweating.

"...Dash. Lee." said Sunset.

Dash instantly dropped Lee, got down on his knees and started crying out, "I'msorry,Sunset,itwasn' ,Ididaccepthischallenge,but-"

"How...many...times..." said Sunset, shaking in anger, "must I say...leave...my...Zap Cider...ALONE!"

With that final word, Sunset finally peaked. Chakra surged from his body at the two, who blanched in fear.

* * *

"You two were nearly late."

"Sorry, Iruka-sensei." said Sakura, "Lee and Dash messed with Sun's morning cider."

That sent a shiver down Iruka's spine, having experienced it first hand. He had one time came and did the same thing, not happy with his punctuality that day. He ended up in the hospital with multiples bruises, a couple of broken bones, a concussion, and his chakra practically useless for a full week. The only reason the Hokage was lenient on Sunset was the circumstances behind it, and just made sure that people knew not to do that.

The boy still had to get banned from books for that week as punishment, though.

Sun was still grumbling as the two took their seats, becoming a source of mild amusement and unnerving for their fellow classmates. Hinata and Ino in particular knew about how Sun reacts, having been there the last time when their sensei, a chunin-level shinobi with a notable scar on his face named Umino Iruka, interrupted Sun like that.

"There, there, Sun." Ino said playfully, patting his shoulder, "Now they know better."

Sun pouted at her, causing the three girls to giggle at him. "This isn't funny, Ino. I need some Zap Cider to be ready for the day, and we're only really able to make one cup a day of that."

His childish anger just got them to giggle harder, until Iruka got their attention again.

"Focus, you four! Ahem, anyways, it's time for us to see just who among you are ready to head on out of here and become a shinobi. In a minute, Mizuki-sensei will be passing out the written part of the exams, and when I tell you, you may begin. Once I say 'stop,' that'll be the end of this part and we'll being heading out for the next part of the exam."

Once he stopped, Mizuki, a silver-haired chunin who worked with Iruka, started placing papers in front of each of the students. However, Sakura noticed a subtle glare as he passed one to Sunset, and suddenly remembered Pinkie's words.

 _"Just be sure to keep an eye on Mizuki. People have a tendency to place him as a really big and subtle meanie during the exams."_

Sakura's eyes narrowed a bit, but couldn't do much else for that moment. Just make sure that Sunset didn't suffer from it. Surprisingly enough, she didn't have to, because Sunset's chakra flared up, grabbed Mizuki, and pulled him back.

"Just what is this?" he demanded, "Just because I've read more, doesn't mean I''m ready for Jonin-level questions just yet! SO FIX THIS!"

Not wanting to make things worse overall, Mizuki just replaced the paper with one of the proper tests.

 _Well that makes things easier._ Thought Sakura, only to see Sunset gaining an irritated look at the test paper. _Then again..._

Thankfully, nothing really else happened during that part, so he was able to start calming down by the time they had to stop and move on to the next part.

"Okay everyone, papers down. It's time for the weapons portion of the exam." said Iruka, leading the test takers out to the Academy training grounds. Once there, he explained the rules for this part. "This test is simple. Each of you in turn will be called up and given 10 shuriken and 10 kunai. Your goal is to get as many of each as close to the center as possible. The better your results, the higher your score will be."

With that, the test began, with one of the first being a boy named Shino Aburame, that gave Ino and Hinata a bit of time to talk with Sakura and Sunset.

"How're you feeling now, Sun?" asked Hinata.

"A bit better, I will admit." answered Sun, sighing, "Although it didn't help when Mizuki-sensei gave me the wrong test."

"I don't think that was an accident, Sunset." said Sakura, catching their attention, "Pinkie said something this morning about it, actually. We'll need to keep an eye on him."

"Just gives more of a reason to wait until after we graduate to get new clothes from Rare." said Ino, "Not only do we start a new chapter then, but we could also make sure that if so, Mizuki-sensei is arrested."

Hinata nodded, but did show concern. "We just have no real evidence to prove if he actually is a traitor. Also, Sakura, your up."

"Haruno Sakura." Iruka called out, proving Hinata correct. Although none of them had any real idea as to how it was so fast for it to get to her just yet.

"Hey." Sunset said as she was about to move up. He gave her a kiss on the lips. "Good luck."

Sakura smiled. "Thanks."

"She won't be the only one who gets a kiss when they start, brother." piped in Jack, having just showed up with Rare, "We both got time to do at least that."

Ino and Hinata smiled at that while Sakura got ready to test her weapons usage. In the meantime, two classmates in particular looked in slight jealousy, but not for normal reasons.

 _Why did they have to get so lucky?_ Was the thoughts of one of them, an animalistic boy in a fur-trimmed coat named Inuzuka Kiba. For him, it was just really his animal traits getting the best of him, getting his nin-dog partner Akamaru to sigh as best as a dog could.

 _What exactly makes them so special?_ Was the thoughts of the other, which was Uchiha Sasuke. Primarily, he was just annoyed at Pinkie, and thought that one of Sakura, Ino, or Hinata could give him the answer to dealing with the 'happy pink monstrosity.' Too bad for him, they were already in relationships, so he had no idea on how to get a chance in getting his answer. Although he also didn't know that he was actually wanting something similar for himself.

The others were much simpler, as their thoughts were more in remembrance of some past times when they had helped out on Sweet Apple Acres. Even Nara Shikamaru, a rather lazy yet intelligent boy, didn't think it all that troublesome, which shocked everyone that knew him.

That didn't mean he was too willing to actually work, though.

Still smiling from Sun's gesture, Sakura accepted the shuriken and kunai and got into her stance. As an added measure, she pictured the target as an apple tree, and she was trying to cut through the stems that kept the apple on the tree.

 _Just like on the farm._ She told herself.

Releasing each in turn, the results showed as most were clumped together around the border between the center dot and the smallest circle.

"The equates to roughly 8 out of 10." Iruka noted out loud, "Good job. Hyuga Hinata."

"My turn." said girl acknowledged, earning a kiss of good luck from Jack, as well as a quip of "Not that you need the extra luck."

Hinata giggled all the same before she underwent her test, earning an 8 out of 10 as well.

When "Sparkle Sunset" was heard, and he came up, he discovered the kunai and shuriken were a bit off balance. Which would've been a problem, if chakra manipulation wasn't his specialty. However, unlike most with excellent control, who became more med-nins or genjutsu users, he had both the control and capacity, and intellect, to affect even things such as metal. He was still a bit confused about that though, but he was working his way to an answer.

 _Is that really suppose to harm my chances?_ He idly thought to himself as he used chakra to rebalance the weapons before throwing them. However, he sheepishly chuckled and scratched the back of his head when he saw that he overdid it a bit with the chakra.

"Iruka-sensei?" he asked, "You taking a point from my score? I kind of overdid it when I had to rebalance them."

Iruka raised an eyebrow at the 'rebalance' comment, but didn't object to the request. It wasn't out of the realm of possibility with Sunset, considering helping with taking care of the apple trees usually resulted in accuracy practice. And with Sweet Apple Acres being Sunset's home, he had easiest access to that training method.

"Okay." Iruka said.

"What? But he just admitted to using chakra, which isn't allowed." Mizuki said, showing surprise at his co-worker.

"Then what about the need to rebalance them?" Iruka retorted, "Jack over there can spot a lie easier than most, and yet he hasn't said anything. I know chakra isn't allowed, but that is in regards to make them either move faster or fly straighter. Am I right so far, you two?"

"Yep." Jack said as Sun nodded.

"This time was rather unprecedented thanks to the issue Sun mentioned, but otherwise he wouldn't have used chakra." finished Iruka, "Let alone because Sakura wouldn't let him do otherwise."

"You know it!" Sakura proclaimed, grinning as she winked, earning a round of laughter from her classmates, including Sun, as that was the truth. Mizuki kept silent after that, leaving Sun with a 9 out of 10 and a big kiss from Sakura.

The rest of the test went smoothly, with it ending on a note of Ino joining Sakura and Hinata at 8 out of 10, as well as having a kiss of good luck from Rarity. Afterwards, though, he and Jack had to head back on out to their respective works. But not before Jack promised a veritable feast for the graduates and Iruka that night, with or without Pinkie's help.

That got a lot of them motivated, knowing how Jack's and Pinkie's food are some of the best around.

Back inside, Iruka started explaining the final part of the exam.

"Alright, the final test is simple, in turn, each of you will come up and do a Henge, a Kawarimi, and a Bushin. Do all three, and you pass. Sorry Sakura and Sun, but that's how it is."

Said two pouted, earning chuckles at being called out like they just were.

As they were called up one by one, the four primary friends took to small talk, not seeing much of a point in any more important topics until later. Eventually, it got to their respective turns, but Sunset really caught people off guard when he went up. For Henge, he snapped his fingers and transformed into an exact image of Iruka. For Kawarimi, his chakra lashed out and replaced the kunai used to test him with a chalkboard eraser. And for Bushin, he tossed out three tags, flared his chakra, and transformed them into three copies of himself, but with one key difference.

"Those were actually Chakra Disruption Seals, designed to act as an 'explosive' shield against jutsu. Although, I haven't quite figured out the selective matrix to ensure it doesn't go off from friendly jutsu, in case it's right beside an ally using a jutsu."

 _Looks like we got another one to let the Hokage know._ Sakura sweat-dropped a bit, seeing one of Sunset's passions at work.

"Well...I'd say that gives you at least a few bonus points." said Iruka after a bit, taking in all that the boy said. "You certainly pass, though. Here, Rare made this one."

Taking the hitai-ate, Sunset held it up to show that is was indeed made by Rarity. Dark red silk with a golden tinted metal plate. The symbol of Konoha had a few extra lines, shaping an eight-pointed star around it. When Sakura, Ino, and Hinata noticed, they all noted to talk to Rare about making custom bands for them. Not necessarily with the additions to the symbol, but at least the coloring.

In the meantime, Sasuke grumbled as he dropped his head on the desk. All because of a few wrong words, he was pretty much banned from buying much of anything from Rare, and it wasn't because of Rare himself. His former boss was the one that made the call, saying "No one who doesn't want to understand the finer points of design and fashion will be allowed in this shop."

While Rare himself didn't like Sasuke's words all that much, he was still more lenient in comparison, preferring a 'prove me wrong' method to times like that. But all the same, by this point, Sasuke was honestly having trouble actually caring about being the top of the class.

 _It's not like I have anyone to share the memory with, like they do._ He thought before he stopped. _Where did that come from?_

They expected Mizuki to do something, considering before, but he didn't quite do anything this time. They were certainly grateful that he didn't do anything, but that didn't quite clear them out of trouble just yet.

After Ino was done and passed, they walked out to find Rare, Jack, Pinkie, Fluttershy, Dash, and some of the others connected to them like Tsume, Hana, and the Ichirakus.

"Knew you four would pass." Dash said.

"Did any of you help sneak him out, or is this legit?" Sakura asked, indicating that Dash still had a few visible bandages on him from earlier.

"There wasn't really all that much for them to do, actually." explained Dash, shrugging a bit, "Lee and I had gotten lucky today."

Sun, remembering the incident, glared at Dash. "Just don't push it again, got it?"

Dash leaned back in fear, nodding rapidly and getting laughter from the others.

"Still, seeing as you all passed," Rarity said after calming down, "I daresay it's time for a wardrobe change to address the occasion."

Ino especially out of the girls cheers, while Tsume smiled at the prospects of a new outfit from Rarity. While none of them have really any expressive modifications before, Rarity did promise when they graduated. Tsume, Hana, and Ayame ultimately decided on waiting until then to get new clothes as well, all of them going together to celebrate.

"By the way, Pinkie." said Sakura, getting said boy's attention, "You might actually be right about Mizuki-sensei." Curious, the others listened in as she continued, "He lightly glared at Sun as he gave him a Jonin-level test, when we were taking a Genin-level exam."

"And when I went up for the weapons test, mine were off balance in their design." continued Sunset, "And he was the only one that tried to say that I should fail because I overdid things a bit when I fixed that issue."

"Figures he'd be stuck as an idiot this time around." said Pinkie, shrugging, "Stands to reason, seeing as most make Mizuki as one of the bad guys. But since Sun passed, he'll probably be going after that big scroll in Old Man's office. You know, the one with things like the Shiki Fuin, Edo Tensei, and Kage Bushin, which you should probably take a look at Sun."

Tsume paled considerably at Pinkie's words, knowing of the scroll he was talking about. She had absolutely no idea how he knew what was on it, but still. She would need to let the Hokage know about Mizuki, understanding by now that when something like this comes from Pinkie, it's usually more true than not. Even if no one really has much of any idea what he's talking about most of the time.

"Excuse me, but I need to talk to the Hokage real quick." Tsume told them, turning to head off, "I'll be back."

She went off as Kiba, Shikamaru, Choji, and Shino showed up.

"What's up with Mom?" Kiba asked, not knowing what just happened.

"Nothing you should really worry about, Kiba." Hana said, "Now let's get moving. We've got new threads and a feast to get to."

"Hold on, Sas-" Pinkie started before Shino cut him off. "He's already left, saying that he'll disincline to acquiesce to this invitation to train some more."

Pinkie pouted. "That's no excuse."

"It's just how he is, bro." Sun said, even though he knew it wouldn't do much, seeing as Pinkie already sped off to get the Uchiha. "Aaand, he's gone. Well, let's go, people. Might as well meet up back at home."

Not much more needed to be said after that, although Shikamaru, Choji, and Shino did have to tell their families about the invitation. Wouldn't have been able to attend otherwise.

 **In case you haven't figured it out yet, Sakura, Ino, and Hinata, as well as the other new genins are in their regular outfits for the moment. That'll change next time. As for the little bit with Kiba and Sasuke, it's mainly more 'They're so lucky.' instead of 'They're mine!' Otherwise, Kiba will be a friend, while Sasuke will be a bit more comic relief with his relationship to Pinkie. He'll still be broody and all, but most of the time he'll be trying to find ways to keep Pinkie off of him.**

 **Until next time. Please let me know what you think.**


	4. Chapter 4

**Hello, again.**

 **So you know, starting now, not all of the chapters will be solely Sakura/Sunset perspective. There will be times that the others will be the main focus of the chapter, maybe even having a few interchanging throughout. The ones not among the foci will still show up from time to time, but they'll be more support roles.**

 **This time will be two parts: First - Jack, Rarity, and Fluttershy; Second – Dash, Sunset**

 **Don't own MLP or Naruto, by the way.**

Dreams to Dream

"I'd have to say, Rare. You've really outdone yourself. I honestly wouldn't be surprised if this became the new standard for uniform."

"Well I did promise them a gift. I just wanted it to be something meaningful."

"Just one question, bro. Why so much silk?"

Those lines were referring to Rarity's 'Congratulation' gift to Sakura, Ino, and Hinata. While each had a separate color scheme (red and pink for Sakura, purple and blue for Ino, and lavender and lime green for Hinata), the design was the same.

A halter top with connected bell-sleeves, with pants in a similar style to the sleeves that had kunai, shuriken, and medical pouches sewn in, and shinobi geta that had 1-inch heels added into the design. A pair of crisscrossing belts wrapped around the top of their chests, with a spot on the back for whatever actually pack, whether backpack or scroll, they chose to carry. The look was finished with finger-less gloves under the sleeves.

Needless to say, Sunset, Rare, and Jack were blushing at how their respective girlfriends looked, and were idly imagining how people would react the next morning when they went out looking like that.

In the case of their respective parents, they just thought the three looked like princesses and kunoichi combined, and couldn't help but be proud for some reason.

"Honestly, I'm not real sure." Rare continued the conversation, curious himself from Dash's question, "Silk just seems to be the most compatible for me to use. At the very least, it's the easiest to merge with my crystals. And no, I'm not talking about embedding gems like I usually do."

That was all Rare was going to say on that subject, and his brothers weren't the only ones that were curious about his little secret. But they weren't going to bug him about it.

Ino was the only one that knew, and she certainly wasn't telling either.

Just then, they heard Fluttershy's voice carry from where he and Hana were at, alongside Hanabi, Konohamaru, and their two new friends Udon and Moegi, and everyone went silent to listen in.

 **[Dreams to Dream – Sequence from 'An American Tail: Fievel Goes West']**

" _Dreams to Dream, in the dark of the night._ " he sang, adding to the tranquil/happy air of the party. " _When the world goes 'round, I can still make it right. I can see so far in my dreams. I'll follow my dreams, until they come true._ "

At this point, a variety of animals had started showing up to listen in. Those that were enemies to one another stood near one another in Shy's presence, not wanting to cause trouble for what they all could tell was a divine spirit in human form.

Shy looked up at the clear night sky as he continued. " _There is a star, waiting to guide us._ " He lightly poked Hanabi in the chest before grabbing Hana's hand. " _Shining inside us._ " He started twirling the Inuzuka woman around into a dance. " _When we close our eyes! Come with me, you will wee what I mean. There's a world in sight, no one else ever sees._ " The couple was now waltzing in front of the others, blissfully focused on each other. " _You will go so far in my dreams. Somewhere in my dreams, your dreams will come true._ "

 **[End Sequence]**

Their moment together was interrupted after a bit by applause, reminding them of there being an audience. Blushing, the two saw the entirety of the party attenders looking at them with serene smiles. Hana's attention, though, was quickly caught when she noticed Sakura, Ino, and Hinata's new clothes.

"Rare?" she asked. Upon there nods, she turned to said boy and stated, "They better not be the only ones that get at least something like that."

"Talk to the Hokage first, because custom designs are exclusive." Rare told her, knowing she was serious about her words. "The mass produced model will take a bit longer."

"That, and he doesn't quite have your exact measurements." Shy added. "You..."

Hana had the decency to look sheepish. "Right. While I have gotten some of his products before, I never did get one completely custom made from him. Usually been too busy to get one of his big specials."

However, before it could go any farther, they were interrupted by a few of the dogs that had showed up, smelling someone that wasn't invited coming near.

"Where?" Hana asked.

They turned in the direction of the incoming intruder, only to have an explosion go off in that direction, getting Jack to cry out.

"The trees!" he cried, running off towards the location of the explosion. Dash quickly passed him, reaching the site first. When Jack and the others showed up, he and Fluttershy saw what happened and instantly grew incredibly angry.

As it turned out, Mizuki had gotten hold of the Forbidden Scroll, and he had help in his attempt to escape. However, he had chosen a path that came across Sweet Apple Acres, and had an ensuing fireball and hit a few of the trees, incinerating a couple of bird nests. Not that he cared, considering only on the surface did he like Sunset and his brothers.

Unfortunately for him, he had angered the worst two of the bunch. Jack and Fluttershy.

 **[Music from 'The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey,' when Thorin is marching down the flaming tree to Azog.]**

While Shy rolled his sleeves up, the two of them strolled forward, their anger seemingly palpable in the air. The shinobi that were fighting Mizuki and his companion noticed, and backed off, scared. When the two criminals noticed their reactions, they turned around just as the two boys started speeding up, the animals from before forming a circle around the four. By then, Mizuki started realizing his mistake and tried to run, only for tree branches to suddenly spring up and trap the pair, leaving them helpless when the two got within striking range.

Jack showed his strength when the branches holding Mizuki's partner twisted around, giving him open access to kicking his back.

Everyone, including the animals, cringed at that.

But what shocked everyone was when Fluttershy jumped, twisted, locked his legs around Mizuki's head, flipped back and pulled the man clean out of the branches. Mizuki ended up braking his nose on a random rock once he made contact with land again.

 **[End Music]**

The watchers blinked owlishly before Hinata asked, "Did Shy just do that?"

They could do nothing but nod in confirmation. No one expected the kind and shy...Shy...to do something like that.

"...Really? You just had to go that route with Fluttershy?"

Except for Pinkie, who's eyebrow was slightly twitching as he called out to the night sky. A moment later, Pinkie sighed. "Fine, you win. Rarity, you mind pinning them, including Jack and Shy?"

"Uh, sure?" Rare said before placing his hands on the ground. Next thing anyone knew, the four were covered up to their necks in crystal. "Now what?"

Hana and Hinata took the initiative then, coming up to kiss their respective boyfriends and distract them. Pinkie, in the meantime, lunged out from his spot, somehow stretching his arms, and made sure the two criminals were knocked out completely. While that happened, he cried out "You're certainly not welcome here!"

"Just roll with it." was the collective response to the shinobi that were fighting the two, which were a pair of ANBU that didn't have much exposure to Pinkie just yet.

Said shinobi just stuck to carting Mizuki and his partner to the I&T Department of Konoha's prison, leaving the party-goers alone.

After a time, with assurances to Jack and Shy that the damage will be fixed first thing in the morning, they ultimately decided on calling it a night. The party mood was kind of ruined from the incident, though it didn't mean that Pinkie wasn't going to do something about celebrating Jack and Fluttershy catching them.

It's just how Pinkie is.

* **[Perspective switch here]** *

"Remind me again, how did Pinkie get all of this set up, and still continue as though he didn't?" asked the Hokage, wondering just how Pinkie was able to single-handedly decorate the entire village within about four hours and not be the least bit tired.

Dash, ready to start the day of courier work, deadpanned as he replied, "You do realize just who you're talking about, right Old Man?"

Even the elderly pair in the room at the time had to agree with Dash. "We really need to do something about getting you a new successor if you're asking _that_ , Hiruzen."

Said man frowned at the jab, but understood where they were coming from. Pinkie just wasn't the type that really can be understood easily, if at all. All they really needed to know was that A) he was fun, B) he was powerful, and C) he was NOT a bad guy.

"Speaking of which." Dash piped up. "What about that one granny? Sun-Aid or something."

"Senju Tsunade, my old student." Hiruzen corrected, nodding at the boy's words. "We just have no true clue as to her current whereabouts."

"Not to mention what happened to her before she left." said the woman of the elders, Koharu.

"Indeed. Her fiance and brother." said the last man in the room, Homura, in regards to what his old teammate was talking about.

"Why don't I try?" asked Dash, but Hiruzen shook his head.

"Wait until we know for sure." he told Dash. "Once we have her location, then I'll probably send you and Jack as at least part of the group that will retrieve her."

Dash pouted and grumbled, "I could've totally find and bring her over easily."

Hiruzen chuckled. "Now, now, I'm not doubting you, but the fact remains, Tsunade has had years to move around and keep out of relative sight. This land is pretty big, and who's to say that she's currently in the country. It's pretty much one kid searching the entire world. Best to keep the odds in your favor before you try. Now here you go."

Getting the boy's mind back on track, Hiruzen gave him a couple of scrolls that were standard messages for Dash to deliver.

"The first is to Iruka, so you know."

 _I wonder what happened last night at the farm._ Thought Sasuke as he idly listened in to his nearly former classmates talking about the party last night, and the subsequent fight. Like just about everyone else in the village by then, he had heard about what had happened the night before. But it wasn't much to think about for him, as he was one st- "Hi, Sasuke!"

The boy jumped in his seat, before registering just who spoke and groaned. "Pinkie."

Said pink-colored boy then stuck his face down in front of Sasuke's from his position on top of the Uchiha. "You were about to brood again, weren't you?"

Sasuke gave a tired glare in response, getting Pinkie to pout and say, "Boo, brooding's no fun. Sometimes I wish I could go into Prime and spark some sense into Itachi. Even with what they were planning, it's still no excuse to turn yourself into a big meanie like he did." But before Sasuke could remotely register what he had said, Pinkie continued with, "Well, I got to get back to the shop. Those goodies won't sell themselves, and I've been wanting to try a new recipe: Bubblegum Cupcakes."

 _Bubblegum...Cupcakes._ Sasuke mused, before shuddering a bit. _I don't think I really want to know._

Just then, the classroom door opened, and in came Iruka. Sunset quickly noticed and got the others to quiet down and pay attention.

"Thank you, Sun." said Iruka upon noticing what the boy did. He then cleared his throat. "Well done, all of you that are still here. You are now well on your way to becoming full-fledged shinobi of Konoha. But that doesn't mean you can forget yourselves out there. You are the next generation of Konoha, so you need to act like it."

While some groaned internally, most agree with Iruka's statement.

"But enough about that. Time to tell you of you-" He was stopped when Dash blurred in, dropped a scroll on his desk, and sped off. Picking it up to look at, Iruka's eyes widened a bit before he continued. "Okay, it seems that there has been a slight change in plans for the team line-up."

He then proceeded to call out the teams, until the ones that would actually be affected by the changes.

"These are the teams that are being affected, although I'm not entirely sure just what the Hokage's reasoning is. Team 7 is Uchiha Sasuke, Haruno Sakura, and Sparkle Sunset."

He could barely finish saying that team before a commotion came up from it, and he had to agree with them. Why exactly did the Hokage decide to switch up the Top-Bottom team-up now? All three of those on Team 7 are the top three of the class, so it shouldn't be allowed. And yet...

"HEY!" he shouted, getting their attention again. "Look, I know this is strange, but apparently that is how the Hokage wants. You want to complain, take it up with him. Team 8 is Hyuga Hinata, Inuzuka Kiba, and Aburame Shino. Team 9 is still in circulation, so Team 10 is Yamanaka Ino, Nara Shikamaru, and Akimichi Choji. You have about a half an hour to get anything like a quick snack before your senseis should show up."

With that, Iruka fell quiet, waiting as well for said adults. _Let's just hope that_ he _will be here on time as well._

Sunset and Sakura decided on brainstorming about just why the three teams were as such, but weren't too concerned. They were together, and their friends were together as well, and that's what mattered to them.

"Well, I can think of something for the reasoning behind Teams 8 and 10, at least." said Sakura.

Sunset raised an eyebrow in curiousity.

"Hinata, partly thanks to Jack, Kiba, and Shino are all centered around survival and tracking." she elaborated, "While it does limit their fighting capability, it would be harder for them to miss people that need help, hidden locations, and potential supplies."

Sunset then lightly joked. "Too bad that doesn't leave much for the rest of us."

Sakura smiled. "True, but that doesn't none of the rest of us are any good at that. They're just simply better." she regained a thoughtful look, "In the case of Team 10...I'm not entirely sure."

"They're probably thinking about how their parents were effective, and thus used that formula." said Sun, shrugging. "Personally, I think it might be more their clans being a bit of a surprise, all things considered."

Sakura ran that through her head, and then nodded. "That makes sense. Naras are lazy, yet smart. Akimichis are seen as physically inept, yet their techniques say otherwise."

"While the Yamanaka are 'dumb blondes' that can destroy your mind." Sunset finished, air-quoting the 'dumb blondes' comment.

Ino over heard and saw Sun, and chuckled, understanding his words. Blondes are stereo-typically 'dumb,' and those that don't know about the Yamanaka clan techniques, or her father's job outside of the shop, wouldn't think much beyond that. And those people had a bit of a tendency to have their minds annihilated by whatever Yamanaka they had angered. So she wasn't upset at what Sun was talking about.

"But what about us?" asked Sakura.

Sunset tried to think about it, but was momentarily cut off when the door opened again. In came a woman that Sun recognized as Kurenai Yuhi, friend of Hana and sister/mother figure to Hinata. Alongside her was a man that they saw had a connection to the Hokage, but they weren't quite sure how exactly.

"Teams 8 and 10, with us." Kurenai said, before turning to Sun, Sakura, and Sasuke. "You three might want to make yourselves comfortable. Your sensei is going to be a wh-"

Just then, Pinkie walked in. Moving to a window, he opened it all that way, then ducked. Next thing anyone knew, a silver-haired man was flung in through the open space, hitting the opposite wall. After that, Pinkie climbed out the window, saluted the people inside with a smile on his face, and closed it behind him as he went out of sight.

Said man, as he picked himself up, grumbled about 'stubborn pink-colored brats.' Straightening himself out, he saw Sun and his new teammates and asked, "Team 7?" After seeing them nod, he continued with, "To the roof, then." before disappearing. Presumably to the roof.

Everyone just stared for a moment before refocusing on their respective objectives.

"Since everyone is up here now." the silver-haired man said, not physically reacting to the fact that Teams 8 and 10 were also up on the roof as well. Although, for the record, they were a ways off from Team 7 and each other. "Why don't we follow them and introduce ourselves. Names, likes, dislikes, the basics."

"I guess I'll start then, Kakashi-sensei." Sakura said, getting a raised eyebrow from the man. "I'm Haruno Sakura. My likes are Sunset, his brothers, my mother, my other friends, the occasional book, and Sweet Apple Acres."

Sunset raised an eyebrow and teased. "'Occasional?'"

"Hush you." Sakura lightly punched him playfully. "My dislikes are the male donor that helped created me...and that's about it right now. My hobbies include helping out at the Acres, hanging out with my friends, and volunteering at the hospital. My dreams are just really try to help make the world a better place and help make a better family than what I had before."

As she was talking about her dreams, she turned and smiled at Sunset, who smiled back as he hugged her. Sasuke lightly gagged a bit, but not loud enough to interrupt the moment.

Kakashi cleared his throat, getting their attention again. "Now that I've got your attention again, your turn Sunset."

"Alright," said Sun. "but you better tell us about yourself too afterwards, otherwise it wouldn't be fair. Anyways, I'm Sparkle Sunset, and my likes are Sakura, her mother, my brothers, books, Sweet Apple Acres, and my friends. My dislikes are Sakura's, just add in anyone messing with my morning Zap Cider. My primary hobbies are reading, fuinjutsu, and seeing just what I can possibly do with my abilities. Dreams are the exact same as Sakura."

Kakashi said nothing until the boy was done, and didn't need to when he turned to Sasuke to indicate his turn. Neither noticed when some of Sunset's chakra silently latched onto Kakashi's feet.

"I'm Uchiha Sasuke. I don't have any real likes to menti-" He was cut off when Sunset waved his attention over. "What?"

"Word of advice, keep any sort of emoness out of your intro." said Sunset. "As far as I can tell, you'll be less likely to get interrupted by Pinkie if you do that."

Sasuke was about to retort, but stopped as he thought about Sun's words. Considering the other times Pinkie showed up, he kind of had to agree. Add in the fact that Sunset, one of the people that knows Pinkie the best, was the one that warned him, and he had something that he should definitely listen to.

The Uchiha nodded before returning to his introduction. "My likes are nothing to really mention right now, while my dislikes are personal. My hobby is training, and my goal, not dream, is to avenge my clan."

He stopped and looked around, wanting to make sure that Pinkie doesn't show up again. When he didn't, Sasuke let loose a breath of relief, only to take it back when a note landed in his lap. Opening it, he read out 'It's not you that'll get it this time.'

That confused the others, but they didn't think too much about it, seeing as it was now Kakashi's turn.

"My turn then, huh?" he said to no one. "I'm Hatake Kakashi. My likes and dislikes...meh. Don't really have any hobbies, and as for my dreams..don't have ONE!"

As he said 'one,' he jumped and grabbed hold of his butt as though something relatively sharp poked him there.

 _That explains the note._ The kids noted, realizing just what the note was talking about. That's when Sakura hit her fist in her palm.

"Sunset! Do you think this might have something to do with why we were put together? Because of our pasts?"

Sun looked thoughtful at that. "...That would make at least some sense, if things progress as they are. We're going to need more information on Kakashi to be sure."

They would have to speak to Hiruzen about it after the meeting.

Gaining an idea, he turned back to Kakashi and said, "Hey, sensei, you mind elaborating, or am I going to have to get Pinkie on the case?"

Kakashi paled at that, not wanting the party lover to go after him as well. Before, he's been lucky that most of Pinkie's antics bypassed him, but that didn't mean he was ignorant as to just how stubborn the boy could be. "Now, now, no need to do anything hasty. I'm sure we can work something out." Seeing that they weren't budging on the idea, he relented with, "How about we first talk to the Hokage? My file is kind of classified after all."

"Would that include your birthday, Cyclops?" asked Pinkie from right behind the man. "Because it did mention something about you be-"

Kakashi quickly covered the boy's mouth, knowing that what he was about to say wasn't something he was even remotely ready to reveal. He just hoped that Pinkie wouldn't say anything that night to his brothers, even with the look in his eyes saying that would most likely happen. _I'm going to find a way to get back at the Hokage for this. I swear it._

"Let's just get moving, ok?" said Kakashi quickly, "Oh, and be at Training Ground 7 at 7:00 tomorrow. More will be explained then."

Leaving it at that, he took them to the Hokage to talk about it. And throughout it all, none of them seemed to notice that the other two teams were looking at them since Kakashi outburst when he was poked.

 **Granted, not everything may seem quite right for the respective characters (i.e. Pinkie), but this is currently the best I can do.**

 **Until next time. Please let me know what you think.**


	5. Chapter 5

**Hello, again.**

 **Last time, they had a party, Fluttershy sang a bit, and Teams were formed. And as for anyone who actually gave thought to why I kept canon Team 7 together (albeit with Sun in place of Naruto), it's because they would be ultimately the 'broken' team. Naruto was raped, Sakura and Sasuke were betrayed by family members, and Kakashi couldn't save his team. One of the usual methods of healing that sort of thing is having the one in question near others with similar problems.**

 **As for the other teams:**

 **Team 8 – unless it's a 'search and destroy,' then tracker teams usually need to leave the target alive. Not to mention they would need speed and subtlety, keeping their presence down to a minimum.**

 **Team 10 – minimum effort, maximum effect. Basically, they are to make the capture look easier than it actually is.**

 **Perspective: Fluttershy/Sunset/Rare (later on); Pinkie/Dash**

 **Don't own MLP or Naruto, by the way.**

Lesson Number One

Hiruzen sighed as he looked at the Daimyo's wife being glared at and lectured harshly by Fluttershy, who was holding the woman's pet cat protectively. "Remind me again, how did this happen?"

Sun, who was in the room alongside his team, explained. "Well, it goes like this..."

 **XX _Flashback_ XX**

 _"This cat is really getting on my last nerve!" Sun cried out as he and his teammates chased down the seemingly bane of Konoha's shinobi forces, Tora the cat._

 _It was already two hours since they started, and the boy was getting pretty frustrated, showing through in the form of his chakra starting to seep out like when he had gotten angry at Iruka and Dash and Lee when they had messed with his morning cup of cider._

 _Sakura and Sasuke, knowing about Sunset's little chakra quirk, were hoping to find a way to get the cat out of their before the boy went off._

 _However, Sakura did take note of where they were running, and had an inkling as to what was eventually happening if this continued._ I'm not real sure which one is scarier. Sun when he's like this, or Shy around animals and children?

 _She was soon to find out as the cat went straight over to where Fluttershy was. Coming up to the boy's leg, it got Shy's attention quickly enough._

 _"Hello there, little one." said Shy, picking the cat up as Team 7 arrived._

 _"Shy." Sun called, getting his attention. "You mind? We kind of need to return Tora to the Daimyo's wife."_

 _"Wait, this is Tora?" asked Shy, taking a good look at the cat in his arms. "The one shinobi are so afraid of this kitty?"_

 _"And the pet of the Daimyo's wife. The one I'm pretty sure we had told you about." said Sun._

 _That got Shy to stop and narrow his eyes. "It's about time I was able to talk to that woman about animal care. I'm carrying Tora."_

 **XXPresentXX**

"...and that's pretty much it until we came here," finished Sun. "with Shy now protecting Tora from Her Excellency."

"-I clear?" Shy finally finished.

The lady nodded meekly, thoroughly cowed despite being able to legally have him killed for this. Shy's angry stare isn't something you can just face and not get cowed.

Shy stared a little more before nodding. He walked forward and held out Tora. "Then show me."

She hesitated a bit before gingerly taking Tora, and started acting like Shy told her to. Unlike before, Tora kept calm in her arms, getting a round of silent breathes from relief. They might not have to deal with Tora again.

Yet another point goes to the Uzumaki brothers, as people were starting to call them once they had the full story. That's at least how they were affectionately labeled in the Bingo Book, with a status of 'Something's seriously wrong with you if you attack them.' And any sort of bounty was just really if one had managed to get their respective village on the list of friends/allies/clients for the brothers.

The only ones so far that didn't really agree was a small village called Oto and the village of Ame, but they were rather secretive places these days, so that was the best they could get through Jiraiya at the moment.

They just had yet to tell the brothers themselves, though.

Back with Fluttershy, he nodded at the lady's actions, before reaglizing just who he was talking to. Sun recognized the signs and quickly walked over to calm him down before he had a panic attack. "Shy, breathe! **Breathe!** "

While he did get his brother to keep from panicking, it didn't stop the animal lover from seemingly collapsing in on himself in fear, eliciting a sigh from Sun. he turned to his teammates and said, "I'll meet you guys later. I'll have to focus on Shy for the moment, I'm afraid."

Sakura nodded, understanding her boyfriend's concern. "I'll be sure to stop by and keep you informed of anything else we did today."

"Thanks." Sun said, giving the pinkette a kiss as he led Shy out.

On the way back to their home, the two brothers came across Rare, who was surprisingly on his way home for the day as well.

"They actually let you off early today, Rare?" asked Sun, catching the boy's attention.

"Why, ye-what happened?" asked Rare upon seeing Shy's current state.

"He realized that he was getting upset at the Daimyo's wife for her conduct with Tora." explained Sun, getting Rare to gasp.

"Oh, you poor thing." said Rare, taking hold of Shy from Sun. "I'll take care of him. You get back to your team."

"You sure?" asked Sun.

"I may have my moments, brother." said Rarity. "But I'm not about to get upset for not caring he was being an animal lover. That's different than if he was scolding her looks or fashion."

"Thanks, brother." said Sun before remembering the shelter. "DASH!"

Said boy blurred forward in response to the call. "Yeah, Sun?"

"Let Hana know that Shy's going to be a bit indisposed for the time being, so she's going to have to keep an eye on the shelter in the meantime." Sun told him, getting acknowledgment from Dash before running off to deliver the message. Afterwards, seeing as the original plan was changed, the predominantly red-head went back to the Hokage's Office to find where his team went off to.

 **XXXXX**

Rare wasn't the only one let off early that day, as Dash was as well and was spending the time with the Ichiraku family and Pinkie at the stand. While on occasion he would do something such as help deliver orders, it was mainly to just pass the time for them.

However, that was quickly changed when Iruka actually showed up with a class that had Hanabi and Konohamaru in it.

"Ah, Iruka." Teuchi Ichiraku, the owner of the stand, said upon noticing them. "What brings you and your students here? Paying for their meals or something?"

Iruka chuckled good-naturedly. "No, Teuchi. I'm actually here for a little assistance from Dash and Pinkie for a lesson."

"Oh, what for?" asked Pinkie, curious.

" _Somehow_ , the kids had gotten into a bit of an argument about which is better: long range/nin/genjutsu, or close range/tai/kenjutsu." explained Iruka, confused as to how they got into it in the first place.

Dash dropped his head on the counter while Pinkie giggled.

"Yeah, I know." Iruka said, shrugging. "But do you expect from kids?"

"Hey!" they cried out in annoyance, especially Hanabi and Konohamaru. To them it was a pretty big concern. Which one was better, physical or mental?

Pinkie was the first to address them. "The answer is easy, actually. While you should focus on what your suited for, neither is better."

"That's pretty well Lesson Number One, kids." said Dash, earning childish indignation at their answer. He saw Pinkie already on the way out, so he led the kids outside to begin explaining in detail what they meant. "Each and everything has a natural opposite to it, though some are harder to figure out. For example," he pointed down then up, "earth, sky, day, night," he lightly poked Hanabi in the nose, getting a giggle, "sound and silence, dark and light."

 **[Mulan – Lesson number one]**

He then started singing, catching the attention of the bystanders. " _One alone is not enough. You need both together. Winter,summer, moon and sun._ " He caught a pair of tonfa that Pinkie tossed him and posed. " _Lesson number one._ "

At least, if anything, he had certainly gotten the students full attention and a good bit of awe.

Dash then started doing a few katas while walking and continuing the song " _Like a rock, huh-_ _huh, y_ _ou must be hard, huh-huh. Like an oak, mmm-uh, you must stand firm, huh_ -huh." He quickly spun around hard enough to launch a small wave of wind over the students heads. " _Cut quick like my blade. Think fast, huh-huh,_ " he went to a more casual position while facing them, " _unafraid._ "

Well into the song now, the kids made a formation, Hanabi and Konohamaru out in front, and started mimicking Dash. " _Like a rock, huh-huh, I must be hard, huh-huh. Like an oak, mmm-uh, I must stand firm, huh-huh. Cut quick like my blade. Think fast, huh-huh, unafraid._ "

Hanabi then spoke up in triumph. "Told ya mine's better!"

Pinkie deflated her pretty quickly. "Just one problem, silly: your only halfway there." He then took over the song as he balanced on a post.

" _Like a cloud, you are soft._ " He reappeared coming out from a nearby flag. " _Like a flag, you flow with the wind._ " A few students jumped when they found him crawling between them. " _Creeping slow, you're at peace because you know._ " He then stopped and stared pointedly at the front two kids. " _It's okay to be afraid._ "

Now it was the students turn, only they couldn't quite mimic Pinkie's movements to the fullest. Didn't mean that the onlookers didn't like the scene before them. " _Like a cloud, I am soft. Like bamboo, I bend in the wind. Creeping slow, I'm at peace because I know. It's okay to be afraid._ "

Dash took over from here, somewhat unintentionally leading the class back to the academy. However, unlike before, how they sang was a bit different as they moved, with the students singing right after his lines. " _One alone is not enough_ _/_ _One alone is not enough. You need both together/You need both together. Winter, summer, moon and sun/Winter, summer, moon and sun. Lesson Number One._ "

As Iruka was surprised when they arrived back at the Academy, the students formed two groups that sang the different verses that came up before. " _Like a cloud, I am soft./Like a rock, huh-huh, I must be hard, huh-huh. Like a flag, I flow with the wind/Like an oak, mmm-uh, I must stand firm, huh-huh._ "

Around then, Dash and Pinkie added in, " _You can fly!_ "

" _Creeping slow, I'm at peace because I know/Cut quick like my blade. Think fast, huh-huh,/It's okay to be afraid/ Unafraid._ " By then, the kids had started circling around the two brothers, just as they raised their hands up and called out " _You have begun!_ "

" _Lesson Number One, Lesson Number One, Lesson Number One, Lesson Number One, Lesson Number One, Lesson Number One_ _!_ "

 **[Song End]**

"So," Dash started after it was done, "you kids understand now?"

"Yeah." Hanabi and Konohamaru spoke for the class. "Find a balance, both in and out."

Dash nodded. "Correct. Now, it doesn't mean that it'll be easy or anything, but I'm sure you all can make it work."

"Have fun figuring it out." said Pinkie before the two left Iruka to bringing his class back to order. He turned to Dash to say, "I'll see you back home, okay."

"Okay." said Dash before splitting off, leaving Pinkie to get back to the stand for the rest of his shift.

Though the pink-haired-and-skinned boy idly wondered if cats liked ice cream cake alongside tuna salad.

 **Okay, another chapter done, but I do have a few questions for you guys before next time. Who should be with Dash, Pinkie, and Sasuke? I'm currently thinking someone from Kumo for Dash, like Yugito, but I would like your opinion on that. Biggest thing is just really try and get Dash and Pinkie with people from outside Konoha if you can. Hinata, Sakura, Ino, and Hana are _locked_ , but others are available, and I could really use some input on that.**

 **Now, I have a little something extra that anyone can continue on. The idea is a series of one-shots around this question: what if the Humane 7/Mane 6 (or whatever group your working with) ended up meeting their fanfiction counterparts? Nothing like actual alternate timelines, but like if Sunset Sparkle and his brothers ended up showing up in Canterlot High and came across the Humane 7. Now, some might not work so well with this idea (like _Halo_ ), but others might. Just be sure that, if you continue on this idea, that you identify which fanfic you're connecting to to be sure people would know. Otherwise, just have fun with it.**

 **Final note – it doesn't necessarily mean the perspective has to be the canon group.**

 **Here's an example of what I'm remotely talking about:**

"Guys. I don't think we're in Konoha anymore."

Sun groaned as he woke up and ambled towards the kitchen, wanting his cup of Zap Cider. However, he was quickly stopped when he attempted to move through the open door, only to walk straight into the wall, knocking him for a bit of a loop and miraculously waking him up.

"Ow! Who clo..." said Sun, only to notice the wall in front of him wasn't a part of his room. Looking around, he found himself in a hospital room that didn't look like a normal hospital room to him. Thankfully, for him, his brothers were there and coming to as well.

"Ugh," started Jack. "Anyone manage ter catch that bull after it trounced meh?"

"We've got bigger problems, Jack." Sun said, catching their attention. "I don't think we're in Konoha anymore."

They looked around themselves, and understood Sun's words. There was enough to know that they were not in Konoha Hospital, so where were they?

Just then, the actual door opened, directing the six to it to see a woman with skin and hair that reminded them of a paler Fluttershy in a sense.

"Oh, your awake." she said, noting them looking at her. "Didn't quite expect it so soon."

Thankfully, they spoke the same language, so Sun replied, "We tend to get reactions like that."

"At any rate, since your up," she said to them. "you mind explaining what happened to you, as well as your names. I'm Nurse Redheart, by the way."

"We're not sure ourselves, actually." said Sun. "We just really went to bed and eventually found ourselves here. As for names, we-"

"Now hold on!" Dash interrupted. "Why are you so trusting and relaxed about all of this?"

Sun raised an eyebrow at him. "You mean besides the fact that A) we're not tied down, and B) she introduced herself first, showing she doesn't mean anything wrong?"

"What about the confusion written in her eyes?" asked Pinkie.

Sun pinched the bridge of his nose. "Look, let's just introduce ourselves and settle anything wrong without trouble. We have no idea what happened, nor where we are, so can't take chances with staying with just us. Got it?"

After they nodded, he turned back to Redheart. "Sorry about that."

"It's okay." Redheart waved it off, reminded of another group of young ones that were similar to them in a manner.

"Back on track, I'm Sparkle Sunset, but just call me Sun. And these, despite the looks, are my brothers, Dash, Pie Pinkie, Apple Jack, Rarity (prefers Rare, though), and Fluttershy (who we also call Shy)." However, once he was finished, he noticed that Redheart had gotten somewhat paler and shocked. "Uh, ma'am? You okay?"

"Is it just me, or you guys starting to feeling like we might need to get out of here?" said Dash, feeling uneasy with how she was looking at them.

Redheart quickly shook her head to clear it, trying to reassure them that everything was okay. "O-oh, no. Everything's fine. Everything's okay. It's just that-"

However, this time she was cut off as the door opened again, drawing attention to the newcomers. Only this time, the boys were struck with shock.

Pretty much female versions of themselves were standing in the doorway, plus one, looking back at them in surprise. It only got worse when Sun subtly checked for genjutsu and found none. But before he could start panicking from that fact, both versions of Pinkie decided on taking matters in their own hands. They sped towards each other and starting acting as though absolutely nothing was wrong, even though there clearly was.

Sun sighed. "Let me guess. Her name is Pinkie as well?" At a nod, he continued. "Figures that they were the ones who started the tension breaking."

"It's like having a given name of Pinkie and a family name of Pie automatically means you hate tension or something." said Dash, getting a giggle from the two Pinkies who heard him. In the meantime, the female versions of them were shocked even further upon hearing that their was a male Pinkie, which quickly switched to at least some fear upon realizing that their was now _two_ Pinkies. One was crazy enough already for them.

"May I ask who you ladies are?" asked Sun, wanting to be sure about their names before anything else.

"I can tell you, if you want." offered Redheart. Sun let her do so to speed things along. "The main ones to know really are the rainbow-haired girl is Rainbow Dash, while the predominantly redhead is Sunset Shimmer. The other girl with them is Twilight Sparkle. The rest are pretty well the same names as you all."

That got their attention, each pair focusing on the other that was similar to them. In Sun's case, though, he's currently facing Sunset Shimmer and Twilight Sparkle, wondering just how it worked that he had a connection to two of them. However, he did make sure to warn Dash to keep things relatively calm.

He wasn't about to try his luck with leaving two copies of Dash alone without any sort of warning.

"So, would you mind talking a bit about yourselves?" started Sun after a few moments. "I just have no idea why I'm Spa-sorry, Sunset Sparkle instead of Sunset Shimmer or Twilight Sparkle."

While he was going on a straight up hunch with how their names went, but he was pretty sure that there was definitely a few things that they needed to be open-mined about, including name styles.

That, and language apparently didn't connect to written word, like the ones on the book that Twilight was holding. No idea why.

Twilight was the one to offer an answer. "...maybe it has something to do with more than our names and appearances. What is your opinion with books?"

"Well, you can usually find me with my face stuck in a book whenever I'm alone." Sun noted.

"So basically, you a more outgoing version of Twilight here." said Sunset, confirming what her friend and her lookalike were saying.

"Probably." said Sun, not having an immediate better option to go with.

Just then, they heard a throat being cleared, which turned out to be Nurse Redheart urging the big group out of the room.

They all sheepishly chuckled in unison before moving out, revealing that they were in a school of sorts, intriguing Sun.

"What type of academy is this?" he asked, curious about the place. It was definitely more than Konoha Academy, that was for sure. But how so?

"How about we talk to Principal Celestia and Vice Principal Luna?" asked Sunset. "Thankfully, it's a Saturday, so we pretty well got the full day."

"Are you sure about leaving the Pinkies alone?" asked Sun, noticing said pair was now gone.

"Not really." Sunset answered, understanding his concern for the most part. "But can't really do much about it."

Sun conceded her point, but still made his full concern known. "Good point, but does yours have powers that defy natural laws from both of our towns?"

The remaining six girls of the group stopped in their tracks from that. Turning as one, they faced him with blank stares as they asked, "What?"

Dash sighed as he realized what their reaction was about. "I'm on it."

He sped off, trailing rainbow colors and dropping jaws behind him.

"This is certainly going to be a problem, brothers." said Rare. "If they are shocked like this from those two, then we might be the only chakra-users around."

"Yeh said it, partner." said Jack.

Just then, Shy gasped in slight fear. "That means no Zap Cider."

Sun stared for a few moments before that statement registered in his mind, reminding him that he had yet to get a cup this morning.

" **NNNNOOOO!** "

 **Now, granted, this isn't necessarily how other people would see the encounter, but that's the beauty of one-shots/fanfics. You can make it however you want.**

 **Until next time. Please let me know what you think.**


	6. Chapter 6

****Hello, again.****

 ** **Now, I'd like to say that I'm sorry if you didn't expect this, but it ended up seemingly like a good idea to me. Harpy-Sakura isn't quite so gone as expected.****

 ** **Perspective: Dash, Sakura/Sunset****

 ** **Don't own MLP or Naruto, by the way.****

Deliver Us!

"Dear Kami...please give me strength." Dash couldn't help but say when he saw the state of the country he found himself in on a random run, Nami no Kuni.

The fishing nation was once prosperous, but now it was beyond destitute as far as the rainbow-haired boy was concerned. A good many clothes were close to rags, hunger and sadness were rampant, and good, innocent people were left to crime to even remotely survive. All in all, it was a picture that Dash was going to get Ino or her father to get rid of the first chance he got.

And from his spot on a rooftop, it took every once of restraint he had in his body to not go straight to the one behind all of this and beat him up, taking a pound of flesh for every single person that had suffered during all of this.

 **[Deliver Us – Prince of Egypt (as done by Caleb Hyles and Jonathan Young]**

" _With the pain of despair on their shoulders._ " Dash intoned through song, not noticing that both sparks and a breeze started coming up around him in response to his emotions. " _With the sight of their ribs by my brow. Lord Kami, God on high, can you hear these people cry? Help us now in this dark hour..._ "

Dash was slightly surprised when he started hearing a chorus from the people below, although he wasn't sure if it was actually them or in his head. " _Deliver us, hear our call, deliver us, Lord of all, remember us, here in this dying land! Deliver us, back to what you promised us! Deliver us from the Tyrant's Hand._ "

He noticed a thug about to attack a mother and what was obviously her son, especially given how she was holding the boy. It didn't seem like they had noticed him, so the woman sang as the thug moved closer to grab her, " _My Son, I have nothing left to give, but this chance that you may live. I pray we'll meet again, if He will deliver us..._ "

Just as he was about to grab her, Dash kicked him away as the onlookers started up again, only this time with slight fearful hope. " _Deliver us, hear our prayer. Deliver us from despair, these months of slavery grow too cruel to stand. Deliver us, back to what you promised us! Deliver us out of bondage and...Deliver us to the Promised Land._ "

Dash then turned his attention to the woman and child again, who were crying in joy at not having to separate. " _Hush now, dear friends. Be still, love, don't cry. Your freedom is coming soon. I'm alone, but at least I can try, to assure your not so alone._ " He then turned to the sky as he prayed. " _Kami, make the wind, flow swiftly for me. Such precious info I bear. Please help me set these people free. Kami, deliver help here..._ "

Dash then rushed off, not noticing the rainbow-colored storm that people were seeing surround him. He then mistook it for an act of Kami when his speed suddenly increased as a sonic boom sounded out over the water, exploding in a ring of colors. What he _knew_ , however, was that the last words he heard as he ran were not in his head.

" _Deliver us! Send a angel to free our home! And deliver us from the Tyrant's Hand._ "

" _Deliver us!_ "

[Song End]

Dash ran faster then he had ever gone, wanting to get help as soon as possible. He just didn't quite expect it when he crashed into Konoha's gates in a matter of minutes from when he started. It was usually a least a half an hour for a trip like the one he just took, also wanting to enjoy the scenery and the wind as he ran.

"Ow." he said as he pulled himself together to get the guards to open up the gate. "Hey, you gonna open, or am I going to have to run over this? This is important!"

"Okay, okay. Didn't expect your entirely myself, and with people usually going through the main gates, ones like this sent don't entirely need to stay open." a guard responded before opening said gates. "Take care, Dash."

"You too." he replied before continuing towards the Hokage. _I'm not about to leave those people in danger longer than I can help._

 **XXHokage's OfficeXX**

Dash sped into the mission office, where coincidentally Sunset and his team were in the process of getting another mission.

"Old Man!" he cried as he busted in the room, slightly panting.

"Dash? What's wrong?" Sun asked, concerned at how Dash just barged in like he did. Even with his general attitude, he was still polite enough to not barge in without a good reason. Especially when said boy is actually panting from it.

"I just came from Nami." He told them. "And it's terrible over there! It is bad enough for _Fluttershy_ to be scarier than a Biju, and that's without animals being a part of the equation!"

Sun and Sakura stopped in shock at those words. Just how bad were things there?!

"Then how come we got a C-rank from there?" asked Iruka, confused at Dash's words, but he did understand that he wasn't exactly able to get the full story until someone actually told him straight.

Dash's answer told them everything. "I'm surprised they even had enough for that."

Hiruzen, after a few minutes of silence, ordered for a man named Tazuna to come in. When an old and somewhat drunk man walked in, he asked, "Care to explain why you lied to us about the intensity of the mission? You requested a C-rank, and yet new information has shown up that raises it to at least A-rank."

Tazuna tensed as he heard the demand, not knowing how they knew.

"Well?" Hiruzen asked.

Unnoticed to all, starting after Dash's report, Sakura was starting to feel a strange burning sensation, particularly around her eyes and extremities. It grew as Tazuna confirmed it, getting her to start twitching in slight pain.

Hiruzen sighed after Tazuna was finished. "It seems that no one bothered to tell you that something could've been sorted out to have it at the proper designated level and _not_ bankrupt you?"

Tazuna shook his head. "All I remember is that when I first brought it up, I was turned away because 'I couldn't possibly have the amount for an A-rank.' Or something like that..."

The old man trailed off, trying to remember for sure what he was told, however his thoughts were cut off by the question from Sunset, "Who told you that?"

"I'm not quite sure." He shrugged. "I got it in a letter. It's what brought me here in the first place, so that I could request in person."

"How about this?" Sasuke cut in. "We take the mission, but also have a tail, in case whoever it was finds out and tries to interfere. If they don't, then they can just join the normal mission. Anyone else can try and find out at least something while we're out."

The ones from Konoha stared at him with their mouths partially opened. "What?"

"Did you just offer advice of your own volition? And useful advice at that?" Dash asked, suspicious of something.

His questions got on Sasuke's nerves. "Yeah, I did. What of it?"

Dash rushed into Sasuke's face and demanded, "Who are you and what have you done with Sasuke?"

The Uchiha's eye twitched in annoyance. "Is it really that hard to believe that I would be that helpful?"

" _Yes._ "

Even though it was just one word, said word came from just about everyone in the room, causing Sasuke to facefault and slump in depression at the fact the Hokage, his academy sensei, his team, and his teammate's brother all said that instantly. _I can't be_ that _bad...right?_

Hiruzen coughed to get everyone back on track. "Now, despite the...surprise...from Sasuke, it is a good idea. I'll have them ready at the gates in about an hour, so be ready by then to head out. However, Dash, I have a different job for you."

"What?" he asked, wanting to know why he couldn't join in.

Hiruzen pulled out a scroll and tossed it to him. "I want you to take that to the current Raikage, who is different from the one who attempted the attack on Hinata by the way, and wait for a reply. I'll be asking Fluttershy to help out, thanks to him having the strongest connection to animals around. Your tail will show themselves once you get close enough to your destination."

Dash scowled a bit but complied as Team 7 left to prepare. He didn't like having to stay out of it for the time being, but he did have a job to do. No to mention he had yet to have a message for Kumo anyways, so he was kind of wondering how things looked there.

Speeding off, he made his way towards Kumo, only slightly deterred by the occasional rock and crevis. He eventually found himself standing at Kumo's main gates. The guards at the time stared a bit at the suddenness, but knew who it was so it was quickly dealt with and they returned to business.

"Yo." He said to them. "Got a message for the Raikage."

"Okay, go on ahead."

With those words, the gates opened and he was on his way again. Thankfully, the village design wasn't all that different from Konoha, so Dash was able to find the Hokage's Office quickly enough. However, he ended up coming across a Kumo team that showed signs of Rare's pocket idea, but from a different tailor. The strange thing, though, was that they had two girls instead of the two boys that he knew.

 _Maybe they didn't have enough for the two-boy-one-girl layout?_ Dash mused before they noticed and the red-haired girl of the team noticed him and laughed.

"What kind of shinobi has rainbow-colored hair?" she asked out loud in a joking manner, angering Dash.

"And what kind of shinobi insults a visiting messenger pretty well in front of their Kage? Pretty pathetic if you ask me." He retorted, getting into a glaring contest with the girl while her teammates groaned. "And for the record, I'm not a shinobi."

"Karui!" came from the Raikage's Office, revealing that the door was open and the Raikage himself was standing there looking at them. The red-haired girl backed off, not wanting to anger the really big man that slightly scared Dash with his muscles. The man then turned to Dash. "So what brings 'Rainbow' Dash to my door?"

Dash showed the message. "Just this, although I would like to know just how you knew who I was, both my name and my nickname."

The man laughed. "Very few people don't know who and your brothers are by now. The six of you are affectionately in the Bingo Books actually."

While Karui paled at hearing who she just seemingly insulted, Dash was silent at the news for a bit. "...WHAT DO YOU MEAN WE'RE IN THE BINGO BOOKS?!"

 **XXKonohaXX**

While Dash was delivering the message, Sun, Sakura, and Sasuke had finished prepping for their mission and were waiting for their teacher and the client at the gates. None of them knew who their tail would be, but weren't too concerned. They just preferred if it was someone they could personally trust.

Thankfully, it wasn't long before Kakashi and Tazuna showed up, ready to go themselves.

"Alright, everyone's here now. Let's get going then." said Kakashi, signaling them to start moving. However, he noticed Sunset bring out a notepad and pencil, and grew curious. "What's with those, Sun?"

Sakura was the one who answered. "I was the one who got him started. While we may need to change a few things, there might be some things that we come across that could be useful for a book. It'll primarily be private between the two of us and his brothers for the time being, but we should be able to make something half-decent in time."

Sunset chose that time to plant a kiss on Sakura's lips, getting a minute gag from Sasuke and some giggling from Pinkie as he whispered to the Uchiha, "Don't gag it till you try it yourself."

The raven-haired boy started before growling quietly, not wanting the others to know.

"And I thought it was a great idea." finished Sun. "I'm certain we can contribute to the world of literature better than Jiraiya can."

"I'd like to see you try." Kakashi challenged, skeptical. "It'll be hard to achieve a higher level of art than Icha-Icha to the world."

"THAT'S NOT ART!" The couple yelled as one, getting laughs from Kakashi as they continued moving. They openly growled as they silently accepted the challenge, wanting to prove their sensei wrong.

Tazuna was somewhat confused, and expressed so to Sasuke. "Any idea as to what's going on?"

"As far as I can tell," answered Sasuke, "they hate Icha-Icha, and they are going to try and make a better seller than it. Though I have no idea how they'll do that, considering that Icha-Icha is pretty well _the_ 50-year-old virgin's companion for the lonely nights. So it's quite popular."

Kakashi stumbled as he heard the boy's words, grumbling at how the book series was described. Sakura and Sun laughed before returning to their brainstorming, with Sun lightly spreading his chakra just in case.

It wasn't long before Sun's chakra found something ahead of them, but it wasn't quite what he expected. Manipulating it, he latched onto the source and pulled hard, catching them off guard as they flew towards them.

"The Demon Brothers." Sun spoke as they surveyed the two before them on the ground. "Not quite expected with what we heard before, but still expected nonetheless."

"At the very least, we have an idea as to what to expect from Nami's side of things." Kakashi added. "Where the Demon Brothers are, Zabuza of the Bloody Mist is not far behind. Just how far is the question?"

"How did you know?" one of the brothers asked.

Sun placed his hands on their foreheads as his chakra flared a bit. The last thing they heard before they fell asleep was, "You don't need to know."

Tying the two up, Kakashi sent a message back to Konoha to pick the two up before the group continued on their way, this time plotting ideas to use against Zabuza.

 **XXXXX**

"Alright, this is as far as I can go. Good luck."

That was the parting words of the boatman that granted them passage to Nami no Kuni. The entire way from the encounter with the Demon Brothers up till then was without incident, so they figured that it would be once they were within Nami's borders. Also, as far as they could tell, it looked like the issue that made Tazuna lie was from Konoha's end of things. Meaning someone there decided to be arrogant and refuse the man service. They couldn't worry too much about it though, considering what was expected.

After Tazuna thanked the man, they made their way inland to the man's house, until a signature caught Sun's attention.

"We've got coming." he told the others, stopping his movement. "Big man with a big sword, who just switched with a snow hare."

His teammates went into formation around Tazuna as Kakashi called out "You can come out now Zabuza. We know you're there."

A few moments of silence followed before a pretty big man wearing nothing but sandals, pants, and wrappings around his mouth, while on his back was a cleaver like sword easily as big as himself.

"Is it just me, or does that paint a compensation issue?" Sakura asked, getting a giggle from Sun and an irritated look from Zabuza.

"I'll cut to the chase, then." He said to them. "I'm here for the old man, and you're obviously here to stop me."

Kakashi nodded as he stepped forward. "Correct, but I have to ask: do you happen to know the state of Nami no Kuni? I highly doubt your client would be willing to actually honor whatever agreement you have with him, seeing as our client could only afford a C-rank thanks to him."

That caught Zabuza's attention fast. "You're bluffing."

When he didn't get an answer, he said "You're not bluffing...ugh, I told that dwarf Gato that I want _all_ information from the beginning. Haku, get over here!"

A person about Sun, Sakura, and Sasuke's age and size appeared by Zabuza's side, wearing a white schemed battle kimono and an ANBU style mask with Kiri's symbol. However, they had no real idea as to whether Haku was a boy or a girl, and revealing the face didn't help matters at all.

"Yes, sir?" Haku asked, wondering what was happening.

"Our contract was violated on the lack of actual information." Zabuza explained. "Gato apparently thought that we didn't need to know that Nami's condition was at least as bad as yours before I found you."

Haku paled at what he was hearing.

Zabuza then switched to orders. "We'll be joining them until we can express our irritation to Gato in person. Despite being a missing-nin, I do have enough honor to require any and all available information straight up. Any random additions don't count."

"Yes, sir." Haku acknowledged, right before Haku's attention was turned towards Sun who said, "Hey, I have a question real quick."

"What?" Haku asked.

"Are you willing to do something such as expose your chest?" Sun asked, gauging Haku and Zabuza's reaction.

Haku raised an eyebrow while Zabuza chuckled. "Why would a guy want to look at another guy's chest?"

Sun and his teammates breathed in relief. "We had no idea what your gender was, but girls would either flirt or get angry from a question like that. A guy would not care as much."

"Oh."

Zabuza understood their issue with Haku. Even when he found the boy, it was hard to truly tell if Haku was male or female. Thankfully, he learned quick enough, which gave him a bit of an idea to deal with pursuers that came across Haku. They would have trouble with figuring it out themselves as well. Although it did come with the problem of having to figure out how to give Haku 'The Talk," so he was still somewhat confused on that front.-

"This does bring up another issue, though." Sun said, turning to Zabuza. "Exactly why was he so confused about my question in the first place?"

-And now he needs to give it to the boy, before the Konoha nins do so. He should've expected something like this coming up sooner or later.

 ** **The part with Zabuza and Haku may be a bit unorthodox when compared to most, but it was how things ended up going. Haku's more on the innocent side, and Zabuza is smart/honorable enough to request all information on the job that the client had from the beginning. He doesn't count changes during the job, because that is to be expected, but he won't like it if something is kept from him at the start.****

 ** **Also, sorry if a few spots seem a bit different from my normal style of writing. Had trouble keeping focus on the chapter.****

 ** **Until next time. Please let me know what you think.****


	7. Chapter 7

****Hello, again.****

 ** **This time, Team 7 will be taking a bit of a backseat to Pinkie primarily. The key words here are, and in this order, Tree of Harmony and Gaara. Pinkie will be playing a big part with both, but that doesn't mean Rare and Jack won't have significant parts as well. Pinkie is just a part of both.****

 ** **Perspective: Rare/Pinkie, Jack/Pinkie****

 ** **Don't own MLP or Naruto, by the way.****

Welcome to the world, Krystal/Game on, Sandy.

Rare was humming as he worked on another order of clothes, this time from Ino's father, Inoichi. It was meant to be a gift to his wife for their anniversary, but Rare didn't quite care. He was making outfits with class, and it was for Ino's family this time as well. He could honestly care less if they were gifting it to Kami, he would've done it either way.

Just then, the door bell rang, signaling a potential customer. "Rare, your girlfriend's here. Get going on your break. It'll be waiting for you once you get back."

"Okay. On my way." He responded as he set aside his tools for later. Arriving to where Ino was waiting, he kissed her knuckles before kissing her on the lips. "Hello, beautiful. How have you been this fine day?"

"Good, all things considered." Ino replied, smiling. "But better now that I'm with you, handsome. Although I do have to ask, when did you manage to get that little number ready?"

She was referring to Rare's current clothes, which were different than what he had on before. This time, while still keeping the color scheme, it was more akin to formal samurai clothes than a regular kimono. (Basically, combine kimono with KHBBS Terra's outfit, minus the armor)

"Oh, this? I was trying something out for a male counterpoint to what I gave you and the other girls. Although I still need to work a bit on making it combat ready like yours, since this is still a more formal style after all." explained Rare as they moved out to Ichiraku's for lunch. However, this time, the route to there was somewhat crowded, so they had to take a detour. "Your team hadn't gotten a C-rank yet?"

Ino shook her head. "Teams 8 and 10 are both holding back a little longer, although it might have something to do with Sakura having Sunset on her team, while neither of us have ours. But that could just be me."

They laughed some at that, overall happy to be together.

Coming close to their destination, they saw things were a bit crowded around the square they were having to pass through. However, unlike the other route, this one had shinobi working to redirect traffic and hold people back, catching their interest.

Moving forward through the crowd, Ino caught a glimpse of rainbow-colored crystalline gleam and said to Rare, "You're gonna want to see this."

Reaching the front, the two saw one of the strangest sights ever: a crystalline tree, made out of multiple types of crystal/gems at that, was growing in the middle of the square's small park. That's also when they noticed Team 8 was there as well.

"Hey, guys." Ino said, turning them towards the two newcomers to the scene.

"Ino, Rare. Just in time." said Hinata. "For some reason, the sapling showed up this morning, and while it does show signs of being a tree beyond the obvious, but it's more crystal than actually alive. Combined with the fact it seems to be made of multiple different types, and we got something really strange going on."

"I'll say." Rare said, coming closer to the sight. "It looks like there's ruby, sapphire, emerald, lapiz, opal, and diamond. And that's just from a naked and ignorant perspective at that."

"So what gems are really used in it?" asked Ino.

Rare reached forward to see what his abilities can tell him, however, when he touched it, he jumped back as if burned.

"Rare? What happened?" asked Ino, concerned.

"I'm not sure yet." he answered, staring at it before turning to her. "But I have an idea on how to find out. I'm just going to need one of my brothers. If it reacts to one of them, then we have a lead."

"So you want me to try touching the shiny tree and see what happens, Rare?" asked Pinkie, having literally popped out of nowhere right behind Rare, startling everyone except said boy.

Rare nodded. "There is more to this than we know, brother."

"You mean besides the fact that this is the very spot where the Harpy Incident was ended?" Pinkie asked, not caring for an answer as he skipped forward and touched it himself. But instead of it 'burning' like with Rare, his expression turned solemn as he spoke. "You saw it as well, didn't you?"

At Rare's nod, Pinkie continued, "The moment Sun steps back into Konoha, we're doing what we can to protect this."

"Just what are you talking about?" asked Hinata and Ino, wanting to know just what was going on.

"We didn't actually split from Naruto like we thought." said Pinkie, earning gasps from the bystanders. "The Kyubi actually took pieces of him, made copies, and gave them enough power to be actually people, while Naruto was sent elsewhere for his safety. Unfortunately, we won't be able to see him in this life at least."

"This tree is actually a last gift of sorts from the Kyubi, as a monument to Naruto for us." said Rarity.

Pinkie's face them turned happy. "So it looks like I've got a bigger party to make today than originally planned. Kohana Asami's daughter was born just a few minutes ago, so I got a baby shower to get ready."

Rare gasped at that, since his former boss was actually Asami's father, Kuzo, and the woman was expecting for a quite a while. "That's great! She figure a name yet?"

Pinkie shook his head. "No she didn't, last I check. But if you just give me a bit, I'll let her and our brothers who are still in town know about this. Who knows, she just might name her daughter Krystal, which would certainly go well with this. Oooooh, that can work."

He then ran off, leaving Rare, Ino, and Team 8 to start setting up security around the 'tree.' However, once he arrived at the last stop on his list, which was Sweet Apple Acres, he found Jack on his way out with a package.

"Hey, Jack." Pinkie greeted. "Where ya heading?"

"Howdy, Pinkie." Jack returned. "The Hokage's gettin' a visit from the Kazekage and his kids, and wanted some Cider as refreshment. Bringing some over after the helpers Ah have wer' set up."

"Mind if I come along?" Pinkie said, getting a shrug from Jack, saying "I don't see why not."

Smiling, the two soon enough arrived at the Hokage Tower, just as said family arrived as well. However, Pinkie stopped in shock at them.

"Uh, Pinkie..." said Jack.

"And I thought Mr. Ducky had issues I need to deal with." said Pinkie as he stared at the red-headed boy of the group.

Jack raised an eyebrow before he spoke to the newcomers. "Ah'm sorry 'bout mah brother, he can get like that sometimes."

"It's quite alright." the Kazekage said. "To be honest...it's actually kind of refreshing, not having to deal with sycophants or busybodies who seem to see just the title I currently bear. I'm sure the Hokage feels the same way."

"True, that." Jack agreed. "By the way, I'm Apple Jack, owner of Sweet Apple Acres, best crop of apples you can ever find. And this is Pie Pinkie, Konoha's party animal."

"You got a gig, I'll bring the jig." said Pinkie, bowing extravagantly to the foreigners' amusement. "Although I can already smell a potential one in the making."

"'Welcome to HappyLand'?" asked Jack, remembering Pinkie line that connected to Sasuke.

Pinkie nodded. "Sandy's got bags under his eyes, blood in his scent, and he's got a walking pile of sand hating the fact that it's stuck behind an incredibly faulty seal alongside a loony."

Jack winced while the Kazekage's group stiffened. "Ouch. No wonder you said he had more issues than Sasuke. But how do you plan on doing that once they return to Suna?"

"Oh, I'll think of something." said Pinkie, hand on chin to start figuring that out.

The Kazekage quickly cleared his throat to try and get things on track. "Uh, well, that does correlate to why we're here today, although we would prefer if you kept this to yourselves for the time being."

"Or I will kill you." came from the one Pinkie was talking about, only to get a response of "Game on, Sandy. I'll be getting you happy before you know it."

"Kankuro, Temari, Gaara." The man directed to the three. "Why don't you spend some time with Pinkie here? Have a tour of the place or something."

"Actually, sir." said Jack. "If you'd like, Ah'd be willing te spare a few apples from the Acres if they don't mind helping out a bit. We'd just have to drop off this Cider with the Hokage first."

That changed the man's mind fast. "On second thought, that sounds like a good idea."

With that said, the man and the package were dropped off with the Hokage while the five went over to the Acres to get started. Once they arrived, they came across the three chunins that Jack had gotten that day for help, but they were taking a break and eating some of the apples.

"Hey!" Jack called out, catching them off guard. "Ah didn't say anything about taking a break so dang early on the job, let alone that you could eat _any_ of the apples without mah express permission."

They tried to turn it back on Jack, but he wasn't having any of it. "Get out, and expect to hear from the Hokage, ya yellow-bellied freeloaders!"

Next thing the Suna three knew, the chunins were picked up by some of the nearby apple trees and tossed out of the place without much thought. And those trees were noted to be at least about 10 ft away from them.

Jack then turned to them. "Okay, since they weren't willin' ter work for their reward, how about you three. Unless yer staying overnight, it's worth two D-ranks together if you do, alongside the apples Ah promised yer pops."

" _Two_ D-ranks?" Temari asked, a bit stunned by that fact in particular.

"Eyup." Jack answered. "Just follow mah instructions, and once it's time fer you ter go, that money will be with the apples. Ah promise, but it'll most likely go up to a C-rank if yer staying longer than a few hours. Any questions?"

Even Gaara had to stop at that for a bit. A potential C-rank just for picking apples? It seemed incredibly crazy, but they had heard about him before so they knew that he was being honest about it. Even so, they had a bit of a hard time believing it, so they just went with agreeing and seeing how Jack would answer once it was done.

Jack then clapped his hands together. "Okay then, let's get started. Kankuro, Temari, yer on water. A couple of them in the back could use some. Gaara, baskets. Set them around a couple of the trees with apples on them. Once Kankuro and Temari are done with water, we'll show you a way to train using this that all of you could use. Yeh won't always be able ter rely on yer normal tools, so this is ter help devise other options."

"Over-reliance on a singular power/item leads to an early grave, which is no fun at all." quipped Pinkie. "Especially if said thing drove you to being alone beforehand."

That hit them harder than anything before, but managed to keep it to themselves as they started working, Jack handing a couple of buckets to Temari and Kankuro before leading Gaara to placing the baskets in the right spots. In the meantime, Pinkie remembered the baby shower and ran off to set that up.

 ** **Sorry if you didn't expect the Tree of Harmony coming, but the part with Kyubi was pretty much how I planned it, albeit with a minor detail or two switched. It just ended up that the Tree showed up as something useful, at least as a sort of monument, because they would need something to replace the Kyubi's power for later anyways.****

 ** **Until next time. Please let me know what you think.****


	8. Chapter 8

****Hello, again.****

 ** **Now we'll be getting back with Dash and Team 7, although Shy will show up towards the end of Dash's part. Not quite saying just who Dash will be with just yet, though.****

 ** **And to reiterate, Zabuza and Haku are still shinobi, not samurai, but even shinobi don't like being explicitly lied to like this time. If Gato didn't do that one key thing, then maybe they would be more willing to continued working for him. Since he didn't, he'll inevitably have to deal with the consequences of his deceit.****

 ** **Perspective: Dash/Fluttershy, Sunset****

 ** **Don't own MLP or Naruto, by the way.****

There's no such thing as a free lunch.

Dash grumbled as he waited once again at Kumo's gate. Even after a few days since he learned about how Nami was faring, plus what happened the last time he was in Kumo, he wasn't an entirely happy boy at that moment.

As it turned out, not only is he still kept from trying to help Sun and Sakura help Nami, but he's now having to wait until the Raikage and his escort team were ready to head to Konoha for a meeting. Apparently the Hokage wanted to try again with a treaty, and this Raikage was much more willing to make it work. And not only that, but he had yet to really get the chance to grill the Hokage about the truth with the Bingo Book.

"Even so," Dash said to himself, "why am I stuck as part of the detail when I can be so much more useful elsewhere?"

"That makes two of us." interrupted his thoughts, revealing that he was overheard by Karui and her team, alongside another blond girl.

Growling, he got up the the chair he was in and moved forward, only to be blocked by the newcomer.

"Do you two really have to start fighting now?" she asked the two, getting a pair of huffs in return.

"It's not like I wanted to come here when I could be helping my brother liberate Nami." said Dash.

"What exactly would you expect me to do when faced with such arrogance, Yugito? Roll over and beg forgiveness?" asked Karui.

"You could start by acting like a proper kunoichi." said Yugito. "It isn't like this is the first time _any_ civilian showed any small amount of arrogance, although I will admit, he does have viable reason all things considered."

Dash scoffed at that. "Like I care about the fact that somehow my brothers and I have managed to get into that dang book, which still ticks me off."

None of the Kumo nin could reply as just then the Raikage and what was apparently his brother showed up. "All right, that's enough you two. Honestly, with the way you two are acting, I should be expecting a wedding invitation sooner or later."

"WHAT?!" Dash and Karui cried in unison. "ME?! MARRIED WITH HIM/HER?! NO WAY!"

"Ladies and gents, Exhibit A." said Yugito teasingly, getting chuckles as the two in question glared heatedly at her for insinuating that.

After they calmed down, the Raikage said, "Now that we're here, let's get going. We've got considerable ground to cover."

"For you at least." Dash muttered, but didn't leave them as the group, and a squad of Kumo ANBU, ran off towards Konoha.

 _I guess I just better hope that Sun and Sakura hold out long enough for the rest of us to get there and help._

 ** **XXXXX****

"Although, I will admit, I always to do something like this." said Dash as they set up camp that night. While they weren't quite at the Kaminari border, they had made much better progress than if they had anything such as regular civilians with them. "Never quite had the chance to before."

"That's not cool." Samui quipped.

"Better hope this isn't a flash, so that we don't have to dash." said Killer Bee, who the Raikage had introduced as his brother after introducing himself as A. His tone resulted in the other Kumo nins to groan in exasperation while Dash just stared blankly.

"What, fool ya fool?" the man asked at Dash's stare.

"Buddy, you just blew your image with that pathetic rap." he told the man, causing him to face fault while the others took a bit to start laughing, drawing blanks beforehand. Karui's irritation with Dash temporarily vanished at him managing to pull a fast one on the wannabe rapper.

Bee got back up and glared at Dash, who just stuck to blank stare and crossed arms. He didn't try anything, but was definitely upset at the boy's reaction to his rapping. _Even out of the village, people don't like my lines._

A then asked Dash about his speed. "I do have to ask, Dash, what is the top speed you've gone? We know you're fast, but just how fast?"

"Not real sure." he answered, sitting down by the assigned fireplace. "Never really had a big reason to actually find my limit. Although I think I might've doubled my speed on the way from Nami to Konoha. I will proudly say, though, that it was all natural. No chakra connected."

"'No chakra connected.'" Karui scoffed. "That's impossible."

Dash smirked at the girl. "Tell that to Rock Lee, who's unable to use chakra outside of Chakra Gates."

He didn't say anything else, just laid back with his hands behind his head while Karui was still skeptical. Although it all this gave A food for thought, but it would have to wait until they were at Konoha to be certain.

 ** **XXXXX****

Eventually, the group arrived at Konoha and were quickly let through to Hiruzen, who promptly asked Dash to give a tour to A's companions of Konoha. However, not too long after they started walking, they came across Shy and a small pack of dogs walking obediently around him.

"I see you're taking some of the dogs out for a walk." called Dash, getting Shy's attention.

"Welcome back, Dash. Behave!" Shy returned, with the 'Behave!' being towards the dogs who started growling a bit at Yugito. "And who are the shinobi with you?"

Dash then gestured to the people behind him. "Sure thing, bro. Shy, this is Yugito, Samui, Omoi, Karui, and Killer Bee. Although, for the record, Karui has some serious anger issues while Killer Bee should quit rapping. He's terrible at it."

Shy giggled as the two Dash somewhat insulted face faulted at Dash's blunt/rude manner. He then said, to be polite, "Nice to meet you, Yugito, Samui, Omoi, Karui, Killer Bee."

Just then, a bird call sounded above them, right before a hawk came down and landed on Shy's shoulder. The bird nuzzled his cheek as he brought up a finger to pet it for a few moments before taking the message on its leg. "Hello there, Talon. What do you have there?"

He opened it up to find it was from Sunset, and what it read brought a smile on his face.

"Shy?" asked Dash, wondering about the smile.

"Sun's made it into Nami." Shy explained. "And Team 7 had managed to get the enemy shinobi to switch sides and join them, so their back up squad wasn't quite needed. Apparently Zabuza Momochi doesn't like it when you deliberately withhold information from him."

"Zabuza Momochi? The Demon of the Mist?" asked Karui, bewildered at the mention of the nuke-nin.

"I agree with Zabuza." said Samui, eyes narrowing slightly. "Withholding information is so not cool."

"Not to mention that it could get shinobi killed." said Yugito. "Although it's a bit different if it's part of a test or you simply don't have all the details."

"So what, he didn't know about the current state of Nami or something?" asked Dash, receiving a nod from Shy.

"At least according to what Sun wrote, Zabuza has a boy with him that went through something similar when he was younger." Shy told Dash, earning a growl and some surprising static on his person. "He also said he'll let us know when to head out to Nami ourselves, so no going there now. Got it, Dash?"

His question was stern for emphasis, eliciting a pout from the recipient and a few chuckles from the bystanders. When he wasn't answered straight up, Shy's stern gaze grew until Dash finally relented. "Alright, fine. I won't go until Sun calls. Happy?"

Shy simply smiled innocently, earning more chuckles and a few laughs. The moment was broken when a bark came from one of the dogs, reminding Shy and Dash of what they were originally. "Oh, sorry you guys. See you later, Dash."

"You too, Shy." replied Dash as the boy and the dogs walked off. He then turned to the Kumo nin with him. "Shall we continue the tour?"

 ** **XXTeam 7XX****

Around the same time Shy and Dash got the message, Team 7 was working on water walking in a battle-effective manner. They had managed to arrive the night before, so didn't have much of a chance to properly greet Tazuna daughter and grandson, and Kakashi had gotten them training for the morning to allow the official introductions be around lunch. However, they weren't quite there with water walking just yet, especially Sasuke who was still a bit shaky in his regular walk. Haku, in the meantime, was still dealing with the after effects of Zabuza giving him 'The Talk,' so he was mainly supervising on shore.

Thankfully, for him, Sakura was still fully dressed, and even if she fell in, Sun was there to pull her back out and dry her off. So Haku didn't have to worry about big awkward moments yet.

Returning to Team 7, Sakura was working with Sasuke while Sun was working on manipulating the water with his chakra while walking on it, waiting for Sakura and Sasuke to get up to a suitable level for actual sparring.

 _Too bad she doesn't know the Kage Bushin yet._ Sun thought. _We could've sparred for a bit while her Bushin took care of Sasuke's training. On a different note, I sure hope Kakashi and Zabuza's paranoia about Gato getting help that we together might not be able to deal with is just paranoia._

"Hey, Sun!" Sakura called out suddenly. "Sasuke's ready for some light sparring."

"Finally!" he cried, wanting to do more than what he'd already done before. Granted, he hasn't gone real complex yet, but the point still stands. Of course, that was also about when the voice of Tazuna's daughter, Tsunami, called out "Lunch is served!"

Grumbling a bit at the timing, Sun led the others back to Tazuna's house, where Tazuna and his family were waiting. Kakashi and Zabuza had went out to scout out Gato and check if their suspicions were confirmed, making it a bit iffy if the two would be there for the meal as well.

At least to the kids.

Although, upon arrival at the table, they found Kakashi and Zabuza there as well, but what really caught their attention was when Tsunami's son showed up, stopped upon seeing Sun, and stare in confusion and slight hope.

"Can I help you, Inari?" asked Sun.

Inari asked in return, "Did that rainbow angel send you?"

Sun and Sakura stared a bit before chuckling as they realized just who Inari was talking about. "Sort of. He's actually my brother, Dash, instead of an angel, but he was the one that told us about how things were faring here."

"We're here to help." said Sakura, while Sasuke just nodded, not needing to say anything.

While Inari was a little disappointed that Dash wasn't an angel, but was still happy that Dash sent for help like he had promised. Ever since his father died, he had lost all hope, but now it looks like things were getting better.

 _Just have no idea where the song came from, though._ Thought Inari and Tsunami upon hearing Sun's words. _Let alone how the heck we started singing as well with it._

Just then, a paper ball impacted with Tsunami's forehead and fell into her skirt pocket miraculously. Pulling it out, she read out, 'The singing is just from the natural ambiance we Uzumaki brothers exude whenever the situation calls for it, although it isn't always coming from us exactly. Pinkie'

Sun raised an eyebrow at that. "Well that explains a lot."

"I'll say." added Sakura.

Kakashi then decided to bring the subject to more serious matters. "Changing the subject, I'm afraid our suspicions were confirmed. He had called in a pair called the Zombie Brothers."

"Zombie Brothers?" asked Sasuke, only to get answered by Sun. "You mean Hidan the Jashinist and Kakuzu of Waterfall? I read about those two, or at least Jashinism and Kakuzu. Jashinism requires its practitioners to basically become suicidal masochists to offer human sacrifices, but in return they are rendered virtually unkillable. Kakuzu had one time attempted to attack the Shodaime Hokage, but failed. However, that was well before our time, so what could he have gotten hold of to keep him alive for so long?"

"All that is really known are rumors about him, mainly him having the ability to steal people's hearts." said Zabuza, having had easier access to nuke-nin data than the others. He may not have been able to get into village-owned facilities all that often, but the doesn't mean they were the only places to go.

That scared Team 7 quite a bit. Stealing people's hearts? Just what could any of them really do against something like that.

"Please tell us you already sent a message back to the Hokage to get the original back up back here." said Sun.

Kakashi sighed. "I did, but I have no idea as to when, or even if, help will come. Tazuna was tricked into lying about the mission after all. So it would be best to stick with the possibility that we're on our own until help actually does arrive. However, it gets even worse with Hidan, because we're basically the only ones that can actually fight back, let alone fight well enough to hold him off."

"I'll se-" Whatever Sunset was about to say was cut off when Sakura suddenly cried out and slumped in a heap. "Sakura!"

While Sun worried over his unconscious girlfriend, Sasuke noticed some twitching around her eyes, hands, and feet in particular. Wanting to know for sure, instead of creating a false alarm, he placed a hand on Sun's shoulder and spoke. "Sun, how about you do whatever you were about to talk about. I'll keep watch over her in the meantime, okay?"

Sun hesitated before eventually nodding, wanting to get his family to Nami as soon as possible. The six always did seem to be stronger when in close proximity to each other.

Gently handing Sakura over to Sasuke, he said, "Take care of her."

Sasuke lightly smiled in reassurance while inwardly sweat dropping at Sun's sudden bout of obliviousness. He did just offer to keep her safe for the boy, didn't he?

Whatever the case may be, she didn't wake up for the rest of the day and well into the night, with each of them taking turns watching over her. But one thing that did happen was the twitching Sasuke noticed becoming more pronounced and wide spread, as well as the occasional grunt/groan of pain leaking out of her mouth. Sun grew restless and stressful with each passing minute, to the point that Haku had to use senbon to knock him out to get him to rest that night, leaving Sasuke to watch over her one last time.

"You better get through this, Sakura." he said as he was about to turn in for the night himself. "Sun's worrying himself sick over you right now."

" ** **Good to know.**** " a voice he didn't expect replied to what he said, getting him to freeze and slowly turn around as movement from where Sakura was came to his ears. When he fully turned, he gasped in shock and fear.

" ** **Unfortunately, I have a little murdering psychopath to take care of. So if you'll excuse me.**** " She said before moving to a window and opening it. She used it as a launching point to fly off as she 'sang' out, " ** _ **I'll search high, and low, and far and wide. I'll find that Jashinist, and I'll have his hide!**_** "

Her piercing laughter rang out over the country as Sasuke stood, staring at where Harpy Sakura flew off and left a single feather. His only action when Kakashi came in and demanded an answer as to what happened was, "She's back."

Harpy Sakura...had returned.

 ** **Basically, with Harpy Sakura, she's Inner Sakura with a few key differences. Instead of being simply a louder version of Sakura, she's more proactive, taking actual measures that Sakura herself isn't willing to do. I was thinking about something like this for a while now for the Wave arc, so that's how it is.****

 ** **However, I am willing to take suggestions to get Harpy Sakura a better named than that. Luna's and Twilight's darker counterparts are called Nightmare Moon and Midnight Sparkle respectively, after all.****

 ** **As for the bit with Kumo, it was just really meant to be bringing Dash closer to getting a girlfriend of his own, like I said before. Have yet to pinpoint which girl, though. Taking solid ideas for Pinkie though, just be sure that they come from outside the village and at least work somewhat with Pinkie, like how Sunset and Sakura are supposed to be more bookish in comparison to Rare and Ino's more fashionista style.****

 ** **Until next time. Please let me know what you think.****


	9. Chapter 9

****Hello, again.****

 ** **This time, I would like to do a little shout out to HollowGoku90's and Way-nin2012.****

 ** **HollowGoku90's had ended up bringing an interesting idea when mentioning at least an omake where the brothers are sent to Ponyville. To make it easier, if the first six agree with this, then I'll make it so that something or other ends up connecting places between Equestria/Earth and the Shinobi Lands so that they could interact with their MLP/MLPEG counterparts from canon-start during the canon training trip. This offer lasts until the Chunin Exams show up in this story.****

 ** **As for making a separate**** ** _ **story**_** ** **that centered around that idea, then I'm probably not going to. However, like when I made the 'fanfic of one-shots' suggestion, I am willing to let someone else do it. Just be sure to let people know where the source material came from (including the brothers coming from me), and if you don't mind, let me personally know the name of said 'spin-off.' Straight up, it sounds like an interesting read to me.****

 ** **Way-nin2012, on the other hand, gave a pretty solid answer to my inquiry to better names for Harpy Sakura. As such, until I get a better one than Way-nin2012 gave me, then Harpy Sakura will be known as 'Blood Blossom' starting this chapter.****

 ** **Perspective: Sunset/Team 7 (Rarity, Fluttershy, Dash, Jack, and Pinkie will join them in Wave to help deal with Blood Blossom)****

 ** **Don't own MLP or Naruto, by the way.****

Harpy-no, it's Blood Blossom

 ** **XXPreviously, on**** ** _ **Maelstrom Elements**_** ** **XX****

 _"You better get through this, Sakura." he said as he was about to turn in for the night himself. "Sun's worrying himself sick over you right now."_

 _"_ _Good to know._ _" a voice he didn't expect replied to what he said, getting him to freeze and slowly turn around as movement from where Sakura was came to his ears. When he fully turned, he gasped in shock and fear._

 _"_ _Unfortunately, I have a little murdering psychopath to take care of. So if you'll excuse me._ _" She said before moving to a window and opening it. She used it as a launching point to fly off as she 'sang' out, "_ _I'll search high, and low, and far and wide. I'll find that Jashinist, and I'll have his hide!_ _"_

 _Her piercing laughter rang out over the country as Sasuke stood, staring at where Harpy Sakura flew off and left a single feather. His only action when Kakashi came in and demanded an answer as to what happened was, "She's back."_

 _Harpy Sakura...had returned._

 ** **XXXXX****

Panic and tension was all any of them felt through the night and into the dawn. Sure, her intentions may be on the up and up, but that is no excuse to risk countless innocent lives for one man. Especially in a place that had even less of a chance at fighting back, let alone no chance at all like Nami had.

The two who had it the worse were Sasuke and Sunset. Sasuke, because it was under his watch when it happened, and Sunset, because it was his girlfriend.

Sun had woken up after Haku fixed him, only to learn of what happened from Sasuke himself. It took Kakashi and Zabuza holding him back with Haku convincing him that it wouldn't help at all to keep him from attacking the Uchiha out of misplaced anger. Unfortunately, that left Sun's anger and fear to stew while trying to find Sakura before he lost her for good. Thankfully for him, Kakashi had sent a message in his stead to the Hokage, requesting for him to get Sun's brothers over to them immediately.

Didn't mean he wasn't impatient for something good to happen, though.

He was currently stuck pacing in Tazuna's living room as he tried futilely to scan the surrounding country with his fluctuating chakra. His emotions were getting in the way, similar to his reaction when someone messes with his Zap Cider, just using fear as the catalyst instead of anger. On the couch was Sasuke, who was trying to keep silent out of guilt, but failing fast as Sun was getting on his nerves.

"Will you calm down?" He finally snapped, getting up. "It'll do no good if you can't focus."

"And just how am I supposed to focus?!" Sun shot back, getting in his teammate's face. "We're stuck he while she's out there under something that shouldn't be here at all! We've got no news, so I have no idea whether or not they had found her yet! JUST HOW THE-"

His rant was interrupted by a strangely shaped pink rolling pin hit him in the back of the head, knocking him down to face the floor. Next thing Sasuke noticed was that Pinkie was standing there, and his arm was in place of the rolling pin that was there. _Where'd it go, though?_

"Sasuke is right, Sun." said Pinkie, dead serious. "It may be your girlfriend, but you're no good to her in a right state like this. Got it?"

Sun rubbed his head as he answered, "Got it."

"I had explained things to the local animals, so we'll have an easier time to find her." said Fluttershy, as he and the others walked into view.

While this little byplay was going on, Tazuna, Tsunami, and later on Inari walked in and saw the six brothers standing together. The old man and his daughter were stunned at how close in appearance they really were, but Inari quickly focused on Dash and rushed up to hug him. "You came back!"

Dash ruffled the boy's hair and smiled. "Hey there, kid. Told you I'd get help."

"While we do have a few things to tell you about, Sun, they can wait until later." said Rare. "Sakura comes first."

Sun teared up at his brothers, but the moment and tension was broken when Rare added, "Although that doesn't mean I won't be working on the detailing once we get this place back on its feet."

"Would you be doing that before, after, or during the celebration?"asked Pinkie, delivering the punch line and a way to de-stress through laughter.

"Thanks you guys." said Sun after they calmed down. "I needed that."

Just then, Kakashi came in, getting their attention.

"Did you find anything?" Sun asked, instantly in the man's face. "Please say yes."

"Sort of." Kakashi told the boys in a serious tone. "We haven't quite found Sakura, but we have found a lead on Hidan and Kakuzu. And since Hidan's her main target-"

"-we can easily have her come to us!" finished Sun, having an idea as to what he was talking about. Kakashi just stuck with agreeing, although he wasn't quite considering just that.

He wasn't about to make things worse.

"Although that doesn't mean we haven't found people seeing her in the sky on occasion." said Zabuza. "So who knows how people will react once they find out the truth."

 _Really?_ Kakashi thought exasperatedly as Sun's face started paling at what Zabuza was implying. _Did you not feel the mood, Zabuza?_

"Let's just get going." said Kakashi. "The sooner we deal with all of this, the better. We already sent word to your workers, Tazuna, so they have the day off until this is settled. Better to keep the three of you here together than out in the open and potentially separate. Haku and Sasuke will be here with you."

"What?!" asked Sasuke. "Why am I stuck here?! I want to help!"

"The point of this is to get Sakura back." explained Kakashi. "Whether you like it or not, you and Haku don't really have anything to add to the mission that Zabuza and I already bring. Not to mention that Sunset and his brothers have the best shot at stopping her. You're more useful here."

"Fair enough." Haku said in acknowledgment. "But there is one thing I don't quite understand about all this."

"And what might that be?" asked Kakashi.

"What exactly about Hidan is so terrible as to cause this to happen in the first place?" the boy asked. "I know Sun said that he's a murdering psychopath, but it shouldn't have caused something like this. It should've made more determined to train to stop him in time, but..."

He trailed off, having no real need to go into more detail. Why exactly did Harpy Sakura come out when not only did it seem like she was completely gone since the last time, but the last time was also because Naruto was...

"She sees Hidan as a partial copy of Fumihiro." Kakashi spoke in realization, before turning to the Uzumaki brothers and Zabuza. "Let's move."

After they left, Haku turned to Sasuke and asked for himself and the Nami citizens, "What was he talking about just there?"

"You might want to sit down for this." Sasuke told them after a few moments of silence. "It isn't exactly something that can simply be shrugged off, to say the least."

 _Tch. More like an understatement once you got the full details of what Fumihiro and his cohorts did to Naruto, and what Sakura did afterwards._

 ** **XXKakashi, Zabuza, and the Uzumaki BrothersXX****

After Kakashi's little reveal behind Harpy Sakura's reasoning, the eight set to bring Sakura back were going full sprint to where the two men were told Hidan might be located. Although they did send Dash on ahead to scout. And while Zabuza was somewhat wondering just who Fumihiro was, he wasn't about to let his curiosity get in the way of the job.

He wasn't dumb enough to let upsets like this one consume him, especially since none of the ones from Konoha really understood it either.

 _I just hope none of this comes back to bite us._ Thought Zabuza. _We're up against two different versions of immortals, and trying to retrieve a harpy. This is beyond normal, even for a missing-nin like me._

Just then, Dash came back, and bore a grave expression. "She's already found them. We need to hurry."

Sun stumbled at hearing that before speeding up considerably, forcing the others to move faster to try and catch up.

As they ran, they started hearing the sounds of actual battle ahead, followed up by yells, grunts, and swearing.

"Money on Hidan being the one that needs mouthwash." Pinkie quipped, only to get some looks of 'Really, Pinkie? Now?' "He's an insane immortal after all."

They just left it at that as they finally arrived on the scene, and Pinkie was right again.

Hidan was swearing up a storm as he tried swinging at Sakura, only for her to dodge and occasionally let one of Kakuzu's own attacks hit him instead of her. Other times, he simply missed. Fortunately Kakuzu had yet to start using particularly devastating attacks, but he certainly seemed like he was getting pretty close to doing so.

Sakura, on the other hand, was flying overhead, occasionally diving at Hidan with her taloned feet or shooting a few feathers around the place. Although the vines that sprouted up were quickly dealt with by the two before they really became a problem.

"Sakura!" Sun cried, interrupting their battle.

" ** **Sorry, Sunny, but Sakura isn't available right now.**** " she answered, halting him momentarily. " ** **Call me Blood Blossom.**** "

"Let her go, now!" he ordered, a snarl forming on his face as his chakra started fluctuating again. However, unlike earlier times, it started swirling around him, as though it was just waiting for a signal of some sort to go after the 'threat.' It honestly scared the others more than the previous times his chakra acted up, since before it would just sort of lash out, but this time seemed more like a coiling animal ready to strike. And it's 'target' was the self-proclaimed 'Blood Blossom.'

" ** **Hmm...**** " She voiced in mock thought. " ** **Sorry, but no. Hidan will be dying now****."

That seemed to be the cue for Sun's chakra to attack, sending out tendrils at Blossom to capture her. As she flew out of the way, Kakashi, Zabuza, and his brothers engaged Hidan and Kakuzu, albeit with Shy calling out for the local wildlife to help. Granted, it was mainly a couple of birds to help Sun, but then again Shy wasn't a fighter.

Rare, on the other hand, held back for a different reason after a minute or so. He, Jack, and Dash quickly discovered that his crystals seemed to be immune to Hidan's scythe and Kakuzu's...'strings.' This meant that as long as he was kept safe, and they were kept pinned down long enough, he could imprison the two in enough crystal to render them out of the fight. However, he stuck to the group dealing with Hidan after Pinkie said, "Leave Doll Face to me and Dash."

With those words, Pinkie disappeared from view and a pie landed in Kakuzu's face with enough force to make him stumble a couple of steps, only to trip on a stretched out limb. When the limb retracted, Dash rushed in and spun around Kakuzu fast enough to lift him up some and spin him around as well.

With Kakuzu now out of the way, Jack, Rare, Kakashi, and Zabuza engaged Hidan again. Kakashi and Zabuza kept Hidan's scythe occupied, allowing Jack to work on trapping the man long enough for Rare. Unfortunately, that was easier said than done, thanks to Hidan having enough sense to keep an eye out for attacking plants.

"Dangnabbit! Why can't he hold still?!" Jack cried out after another failed attempt. It was getting really frustrating that Hidan kept on moving around at the slightest change in the greenery beneath them.

"I have an idea!" Rare called out in response. "All of you, jump!"

As the they and Pinkie and Dash responded accordingly, Rare focused and slammed his hands down on the ground, sending out a wave of crystals that covered the place and managed to catch Hidan and Kakuzu off guard long enough to imprison their legs. He collapsed afterwards, getting concern from his brothers as they ran over from the two criminals.

"Rare! Are you alright?" Shy asked, being the first to make it to him. He gentled picked Rare up and had the boy lean on him.

"I'm fine, Shy, it just took a lot out of me." Rare answered, clearly tired.

"Now it's just Sun and-oh come on!" Dash said before having to dodge Kakuzu's arm flying at him, leaving Zabuza to pin it to the ground. "Will you give it a rest already?!"

"We have a job to do kid." Kakuzu said. "Nothing personal, but you all and the bird girl are just in the way. Although I'm honestly starting to believe this job isn't worth the meager cash Gato's offering."

"What are you saying you-" Hidan tried to yell before Pinkie stuffed a peach in his mouth.

"No swearing for you!" he scolded, as though he was scolding a child. Kakuzu chuckled a bit at his partner's misfortune. "Not to mention it's because of you being here that Blood Blossom showed up again, so I don't want to hear it, meanie."

Kakuzu was by now starting to laugh at Hidan, but they were all interrupted by an explosion from Sun and Blossom. Next thing they knew, Blossom was sent head first into Hidan's head, knocking her out and turning her back into Sakura. Hidan, in the meantime, got a concussion from the hit instead.

"Are you f-" He started before Pinkie got in his face again with an expression that stunned the criminal, easily saying, "You better not be attempting to swear again. _Right?_ "

Sun was really tired when he finally managed to catch Blood Blossom off guard and knock her out with an Explosive Tag. He idly noticed her revert back to Sakura, and was glad for it, but couldn't do much about it with how extensive his chakra field was working.

Even if he's worked with it before, he hasn't done anything like create an adult-sized hand about 10 meters away from him just yet.

Now he just had to get Sakura back to safety, help deal with the nuke-nins, and figure out a way to deal with Blood Blossom for good.

 _Like that will be easy. But first, I could use a nap._

 ** **In case anyone is wondering, the omake where Sun and the others show up in Ponyville will be next chapter, mainly because the way I'm seeing it now, it'll be pretty long. Best to keep it separate.****

 ** **Also, what do you people think of this: Orochimaru brings back Minato and Kushina, only to be revived**** ** _ **completely**_** ** **by Sun and the others, and discover how Naruto became the six brothers. I'm mainly bringing this up now in case you guys don't think that would be a good idea, so that I don't end up doing anything like doing that out of the blue and get ire for 'ruining the story' or something like that. Even if I am the one writing this, it doesn't mean I'm not willing to accept help to**** ** **make it better**** ** **.****

 ** **Until next time. Please let me know what you think.****


	10. Chapter 10

****Okay, scratch part of what I said last chapter. The omake of them arriving in Ponyville will still happen, but it won't be the only thing in this chapter. Way-nin2012 brought up a concept that should be more helpful in portraying my idea with Minato and Kushina – preview. It isn't an exact omake**** ** _ **unless**_** ** **people don't want this in the actual story. If they do, then it'll just be a peek at what will most likely happen (unless I think of something better between now and then).****

 ** **Also, the title is meant to be a play on 'o-ma-ke.'****

 ** **Perspective: Preview, then omake****

 ** **Don't own MLP or Naruto, by the way.****

'Oh, make it a reality, please.'

 ** **XXMinato and Kushina returnXX****

"Before we begin, I do have one question." said Orochimaru. "How exactly did you know about all of this, anyway?"

Dash smirked as he remembered the answer to that question. "Apples from Sweet Apple Acres can be some pretty effective bribes. Especially for young shinobi with certain bloodthirsty tendencies."

 _Really? Gaara gave it away for a bunch of apples?_ Orochimaru sweat-dropped as that train of thought went through his head. Although it did partly explain why the Ichibi Jinchuriki and his siblings were rallying the Suna nins in fighting Oto. _Doesn't explain why Suna's turning, though. Plan B, then._

Deciding on forgoing any more talk, the nuke-nin went through a set of handsigns, calling out "Kuchiyose: Edo Tensei." as he placed his palm on the ground. Four sections of the roof right in front of him 'opened' and up came four boxes, with the first three having 'San,' 'Ni,' and 'Yon' on them, while the last had 'Shini,' for some reason that somewhat baffled Orochimaru even. At least until the fronts fell off, then they understood clearly, making Hiruzen pale a bit at the last two in particular.

"Dash, get your brothers over here now." the only living Hokage ordered. He would need all of their help in dealing with Naruto's parents.

"Just give me a sec, chief." Dash responded before pivoting on a foot, spinning himself around fast enough to dig his way through the roof they were standing on.

And revealing that Orochimaru's plan of imprisonment should've been on something made of metal, so that the people he imprisoned couldn't escape by going under.

"Note to self: upgrade the Shishienjin to include underground." Orochimaru stated to himself, staring a bit blankly at that easily obvious oversight on his part while Hiruzen started talking to the four he just revived using the Edo Tensei. However, his attention was diverted to the conversation when he over heard Kushina Uzumaki, also known in battle as the Red Death, asked, "Is Naruto okay?"

While he knew of the Uzumaki brothers, the only thing that really interested him was how one person could permanently become six. He may have no real morals, but he was still a researcher/scientist. This was just something that got his mind piqued.

Hiruzen chuckled nervously as he started to reply to the woman. "Sorry, Kushina, Minato, but...your son...isn't exactly around...anymore. He kind of..."

His words trailed off as a hand of chakra punched through the roof and tried to grab hold of the edge, only to accidentally grab the Sandaime and then the Nidaime, and toss them hard enough to get caught in the flaming barrier to be turned to dust. It finally managed to get a solid hold after Minato reminded Kushina about her similar ability, Kongo Fusa. With the chains attached, the 'arm' decreased, resulting in Dash and his brothers being pulled into view.

"I guess I'll keep this simple." Hiruzen finished. "Dash, Jack, Sunset, Fluttershy, Rarity, Pinkie, meet your parents. Minato, Kushina, meet what became of Naruto."

The two remaining revived shinobi blinked blankly at the six boys, having trouble believing Hiruzen's words.

Orochimaru saw it as the perfect time to continue with his plans, and rushed to get Minato and Kushina completely under his control. With them distracted, no one could stop him from doing this. Or at least, so he thought, before a pink fist knocked him off course and further away.

"You ain't getting them that easily, bucko." Pinkie said as he retracted his arm.

Minato opened his mouth to say something, but Sunset spoke first. "Sorry, dad, but we currently don't have the time to talk right now, let alone try and get the two of you to understand well enough to not attack the villagers because of our situation. There is still an invasion to deal with, and we're probably going to have to deal with the Ichibi as well. Something caused it to go haywire, and Gaara's having trouble holding it back."

"Thankfully, I brought these." Pinkie said, bringing out a bag of six crystalline fruits that they recognized from the crystal tree that was growing in town. They look small enough to eat in one bite for some reason. The biggest differences between them were the color and symbol on them.

One was pink with a balloon on it, one was red with a star that had a horizontal line cut through it, one was yellow with a butterfly on it, another was blue with a lightning bolt on it, the fifth was orange with an apple on it, while the final one was purple with an intricate diamond on it. (Legend of Everfree color scheme)

"Ah guess we should try and eat them?" Jack asked, taking the orange one while the others took various ones themselves, leaving Pinkie with the pink one.

Pinkie nodded before pointing off to the side. "Yep, although we might want to hurry."

A sudden tremor minutely shook the place, right before the Ichibi started visibly forming around a incredibly loud and screaming Gaara.

Sunset quickly took charge. "Eat on three. 1...2...3!"

As one, the six ate their respective fruits. But no one expect them to suddenly burst with power, nor their clothes to change in a flash of light respective of the color their fruit was.

Sunset gained unique sandals with attached shin guards, alongside armor plated pants and shirt. Armored greaves covered his hand while his hitiate 'grew' to cover the sides of his face, cheeks, and the bridge of his nose. All of it was colored in various shades of red and light purple, with partial flaming suns on the shoulders and hips, and kanji for 'Trust' on the back of the shirt.

Dash was more vibrant/sharp in rainbow color with a stormy design, with winged armored boots, hakama pants, and a unique mesh/chainmail tunic-cloak combo that double covered most of his chest. Pointed gloves and the kanji for 'Loyalty' on his back finished the ensemble.

Pinkie was rather vibrant, using various shades of magenta on his jacket with shoulder pauldrons, confetti patterned vest, mesh shirt, caprice pants with a wavey-line design, striped crossing chest straps, and armored shoes. The kanji for 'Laughter' on his back was pretty well the only thing that wasn't remotely magenta.

While Rarity's wasn't vibrant or sharp, his purple/blue color scheme was still easily eye-catching, with crossing chest straps that went down under his hips, hakama pants, qipao-style skintight shirt, fingerless elbow gloves, and sleek steel-toed knee-high geta, with the kanji for 'Generosity' on the back of his shirt.

Jack's showed his connection to plants and earth, with a thick mesh-turtle neck, open vest with chainail inside, cargo shorts, knee armor, hiking boots, worker gloves, and the kanji of 'Honesty' on his back being various shades of forest green and wood brown.

Fluttershy's was a bit more surprising, being hakama pants, a qipao-style shirt with long, open sleeves and trailing cloth in both the front and back of it, and the kanji for 'Kindness' on his back. An obi sash and steel-toed geta finished the look, with more soft colors like sky blue and light green coloring it all.

When they were done changing, Sun called out, "Alright, let's do this!" and they leapt into battle as one. But not without leaving an unexpected surprise in their wake.

"How are we alive?"

 ** **XXAt least it isn't elephantsXX****

 ** **XXDashXX****

" _WATCH OUT!_ " Poof! "Oof!"

That was how Dash 'woke' up to find himself upside down and going through a cloud. Once his current predicament registered in his mind, he started trying to pull his head back through, only to find it hard on two counts.

One, for a cloud it was surprisingly hard to maneuver.

Two, he no longer had fingers or toes. In fact, he doubted he was really human any longer.

His arms and legs smaller, simpler, and positioned differently, alongside his neck, but the biggest thing was the wings he felt on his sides.

"Hey, are you alright?" a female voice that sounded similar to his asked as another pony with wings came closer. Working his way around, he saw the voice belonged to a pony with a blue coat and a rainbow colored mane and tail. "Cuz even if it is somewhat funny to see you like this, even I'm not quite willing to laugh when you appear out of nowhere and fly like a comet or something."

"Ugh, you could thank my brother for that." he told the newcomer. "Anyways, if you could just help out of this and get me to the ground, I can more easily explain. This cloud is for some reason rather hard to get out of."

She looked at him like he had two heads. "Now what kind of pegasus are you if you both can't fly and can't manipulate the weather."

"Weather?" Dash asked absentmindedly before recalling his ability to use some Storm Release. "I'm such an idiot."

He then concentrated, focusing his abilities to cover his entire body. It succeeded in setting him free from the cloud, but it also left him to the mercy gravity again. "Oh, come on!"

When the cloud suddenly dispersed, the flying pony smirked at at seeing the newcomer that looked somewhat like her in the head could use pegasus magic, but that turned to shock once she got a full look at him. _He looks like a male version of me! What's going o-and he's falling._ "Hang on!"

When Dash saw her finally move towards him, his eyes widened upon seeing the rainbow trail appear behind her, just like it did for him. However, she didn't look nearly as fast as he thought she would be, given that they apparently had similar powers. Thankfully, for him, it was just how he was seeing it instead of reality, so she caught up to him pretty quickly and gently brought him down to the solid earth below.

"Thanks for the assist." he told her as he stabled himself on all fours. "I have absolutely no idea how I came to be like this, though. I'm 'Rainbow' Dash-"

"No, I am, imposter!" she cried in anger, only to get a smack from Dash.

"I wasn't finished, or did you not hear me say 'Rainbow?' As in, it's a title, not a name?" He retorted. "Moron, it just means that whenever I'm delivering a message for the Hokage or someone else, a rainbow trails behind. My name is just Dash."

"Really?" the now named Rainbow Dash asked. At his nod, she apologized. "Sorry."

Dash waved it off. "I'm similar at times, so no biggee. At any rate, think you could help me out a bit more? More than likely my brothers are somewhere here as well, and I'd like to find them."

"They wouldn't happen to have anything to do with the other 'comets' that appeared at the same time as you, would they?" asked Rainbow. "Most of them went down in Ponyville, while two landed a on the outskirts."

 _Ponyville? Good place to start as any._ Dash thought before responding. "Probably, considering all six of us were caught in the blast that brought me here. Which way to Ponyville?"

Rainbow smiled warmly before hovering a few feet above the ground. "Follow me. I'll take you there."

 ** **XXRarityXX****

" _WATCH OUT!_ " Shing! Crash! "Ow."

Rare laid there as the unconscious crystal armor that protected him dispersed into dust and then nothing. But even then he was knocked for a loop, although that might've been still the seal Sun was messing with exploding and creating this situation in the first place.

"Hey, mister!" said a young female voice from behind him. "Mister, are you okay?"

Rare just groaned as he slowly picked himself up, or at least tried to.

"Rarity." the voice called out, but not to him. "Rarity, I need your help."

A somewhat muffled older voice, female as well, responded. "Sweetie Belle, can't you see I'm busy?"

"But there's this pony right outside that needs helps." Sweetie Belle told her. "I'm not strong enough to do so."

"Really?" 'Rarity' asked before some foot steps came around a corner and a gasp was heard. "Oh my goodness! Sweetie, get a place inside ready. I'll bring him in."

"Ma'am." Rare spoke, catching their attention. "If you don't mind, I just could use some help in getting up. I don't feel like I'm in my natural body."

"Uh, okay." the elder said, confused and uncertain, right before a cloak of energy that reminded him of Sun's chakra abilities covered him. After he was placed on all fours, the energy left him. "Are you truly okay? You sure you don't need the hospital or anything?"

"No, I'm good." Rare reassured. "But my an...swer..."

He was turning as he spoke, so that can thank them face-to-face, but trailed off once he saw his helper. With curls in her mane and tail, she was essentially a female version of himself. He also noticed a set of three diamonds on her flank, which he noticed with a glance was on his own flank.

Even if he is more decorative and prim in comparison, that didn't mean he didn't know anything about horses and ponies.

But the main thing that caught his attention was the fact that both his lookalike and the younger pony with her had horns on their foreheads, depicting them as unicorns.

Quickly composing himself, he continued his previous line of words. "My sincerest apologies, ma'am, but can we take this inside for some privacy? This isn't exactly the best thing to be brought to public ears so quickly. And for the sake of greetings, I'm Rare." _If at all, but that option isn't available right now._

"Pleasure to meet you." Rarity said hesitantly, but nonetheless lead him and the younger unicorn inside to talk. However, once inside, _she_ had to get _his_ attention back on their current situation instead of the decorations, surprising Sweetie Belle.

It wasn't every day she saw her own sister get someone's attention off of detailing instead of the other way around.

 ** **XXJackXX****

" _WATCH OUT!_ " Tumble. Bam! "Oooh, what in tarnation?"

All Jack could really register in his mind was that he was falling, and now he is upside down after slamming into something rough, like a tree. A little bit later, his sight focused enough to notice two ponies coming up to him. One had a blond mane and tail, each with a red tie keeping them together, with a fedora like his and a light tan coat, while the other had a red coat and more orange mane and tail and a horse ring around its neck. Once they got close enough, he easily identified the red pony as male and the light tan one as female.

"Are yah ahright, partner?" asked the mare, showing open concern towards Jack.

"Ah think so, miss. Might need a hand in righting mahself, though." said Jack as he tried to move, only to fall to the side and gain confused expressions on the two ponies faces. "What's wrong?"

"What's a hand?" the mare asked, earning a look of understanding from Jack as he managed to stand on all fours, idly surprised by being a pony himself. The more surprising part was that he looked like a male version of the mare in front of him.

"Would ya look at that?" said Jack. "And you would most likely know 'hand' as 'hoof,' actually. Anyways, I'm Jack."

"Ah'm Applejack, but you can call meh AJ." greeted the mare. "And this is my brother, Big Mac."

Jack snorted a bit upon hearing their names. He then explained. "Sorry, but mah full name is Apple Jack, or Jack Apple if you keep the family name after the surname. And mah horse back home is named Big Mac, although it's mainly because of how big he is. Might have a reason as to why we look so similar, AJ."

AJ smiled some after the explanation before saying, "With a name like that, Ah daresay you'd fit right in with us. Even better that you didn't damage the apple tree you hit."

"Apple tree?" Jack asked before turning around to notice that the tree he was leaning on was indeed an apple tree. This got him to smile. "Even better. I was also an apple farmer, although I did have an advantage to most."

Concentrating on one of his hoofs, he channeled his chakra into the tree, causing it to reach down and place an apple in Jack's fedora that was right nearby, getting AJ and Big Mac's jaws to drop in shock. After the tree went back into its normal position, he picked up his fedora and held the apple to AJ, who shakily took it with her hoof and stared at it in shock. Big Mac shared her sentiment, but was much more composed about it.

"While the official term is Mokuton or Wood Release," Jack explained, "it just really meeeeeEEEAAANS-!"

He was interrupted as AJ suddenly grabbed him and dragged him off to their house, with Big Mac not far behind carrying Jack's fedora.

No way were they letting that ability slip through their hooves.

 ** **XXFluttershyXX****

" _WATCH OUT!_ " Boing! "Huh?"

Unlike his brothers, Shy's reunion with ground wasn't quite as bad. He landed a bear, bounced, and came out on all fours from the start. Blinking owlishly, he saw himself surrounded by said bear, alongside some birds, rabbits, squirrels, and a couple of chipmunks. However, he did notice some pale pink hair and a timid eye poking out from behind the bear.

"Um, excuse me." Shy said after a bit. "I'm sorry to bother you, but if you could please tell me where the nearest town is, I'll be on my way."

He heard a mumble from the person hiding behind the bear, but before he could do anything, one of the rabbits moved over and roughly pulled them out, revealing the person to actually be a winged pony that was acting like a rather shier version of himself.

Bowing to be polite, he said, "Hello, my name is Shy. What's your name?"

He didn't get an answer, mainly thanks to the pony in front of him staring in shock, getting him to look at himself and see what was the problem. _We look the same._

"This is rather unorthodox, I admit." Shy told the pony. "But I'm afraid we won't be able to get past the awkwardness of this until we get to someplace better than here. Even if it's just in your house with some refreshments to help. Although if that is too much for you, you mind directing me to the nearest town?"

The pony quickly stammered out (which I'm not doing), "Oh no, it's alright! Come on in to my house. And I'm Fluttershy."

"Nice to meet you." Shy greeted, thinking it best to not tell the pony his full name. At least until he had found any semblance of his brothers to better explain.

 ** **XXSunset and PinkieXX****

 _Why did I think this was a good idea?_ Sunset thought to himself as he saw most of his brothers fall in separate locations from him and Pinkie. At least, he assumed it was his brothers, considering they were the only ones caught in the concentrated blast. He wasn't entirely sure, because he was seeing strangely designed ponies who were coincidentally wearing the upper part of their outfits. _At least the colors match up, far as I can tell. Now I just got to find a way to slow the two of us before finding them. Thankfully they don't seem to have gone all that far, so it should be easy to find them._

"Try concentrating on your forehead, Sun." he heard from the one with him, confirming it was indeed Pinkie.

Taking his advice, Sun focused chakra towards his forehead, idly feeling it envelope a horn that he just noticed was there. Deciding on keeping it simple, as well as the fact they were heading straight towards two ponies and one other creature on the ground quickly, he covered them in a protective shell while shouting, " _WATCH OUT!_ "

Thankfully the one that was starting to look like Pinkie got the other two out of the way well enough before they landed, creating a decent crater from the impact. After making sure they were no longer in danger did Sun release the shell, eliciting gasps from the three that dodged them.

As Sun and Pinkie got out of the crater, they got a good and proper look at both each other and their main bystanders.

Sun had a horn on his head, and a tail the same color as his 'hair,' or mane now that he was a pony. One of the bystanders look similar to him, just with a more purple color. The biggest things he noticed, however, were the facts that said purple pony was carrying what he could only guess was a bipedal dragon on her back, and the fact that there was two Pinkies with the only real difference he could tell was the style of the mane.

His brother's mane and tail were as wild as ever, while his lookalike was more on the puffy side in comparison.

As he stared, he started noticing more minute differences that revealed both of the other ponies as female, mainly in how their face were a bit more rounder that his brother.

His idle analysis was interrupted when the female Pinkie appeared right in their faces, going back and forth between them as she started asking questions that were eerily reminiscent of Pinkie when he's particularly excited about a new arrival. Thankfully, for his sanity, his brother caught her and stopped her questions long enough for him to say, "A hyperactive female Pinkie, a unicorn, and a dragon...I'm pretty sure I've seen everything now."

Pinkie shook his head at Sun's words. "I'm pretty sure a better description of 'I've seen everything' is when you see an elephant fly, brother."

"Fair enough." Sun admitted.

"Excuse me, but who are you two?" the female unicorn asked, cutting in with a legitimate question, albeit a bit rudely. But he understood where she was coming from, since they did just almost literally drop on top of them alongside his staring, so he couldn't quite fault her for it.

"Sorry about that." He cleared his throat after apologizing. "I just have one quick question first. If you have a name like Pinkie Pie, which one is considered the name of that person and not the family name?"

"Pinkie." answered female Pinkie, curious about their names as well.

"Okay, then I'm Sunset Sparkle." Sun introduced. "Call me Sun. And this is my brother, Pinkie Pie."

"It isn't a nickname like with you, Pinkemena." Pinkie said for distinction, which all three caught on and understood. She might prefer Pinkie, but it's a nickname for her, while it isn't for him. "Although you can call me PK to keep it simple."

"Okay." she chirped. "My name is Pinkemena Diane Pie, but I prefer Pinkie Pie."

"And I'm Twilight Sparkle." the unicorn said. "And this is Spike."

"Hello." the dragon greeted.

"Hello. Now another question." said Sun, looking around. "Either of you have any idea of where the others landed, because we definitely weren't the only ones who fell, and I'd like to make sure we're all together safe and sound before we learn about just where we landed."

"You mean those other objects were ponies as well?" Pinkemena asked. When Sun nodded, she squealed before bouncing in place in excitement. "Iknowexactlywhereeachofthemlanded,solet'sletgo!"

"Easy there." Pinkie told her as he caught her on one of his legs. "That's not very nice to Twilight or Spike, now is it?"

Pinkemena chuckled sheepishly as she turned and asked, "Do you want to come with? They were spread enough to give you a tour."

"What?" Twilight asked, not happy. "We don't have-"

"Actually, Twilight, this would be helpful." Spike interjected. "We were sent to check in on preparations for the Summer Sun Celebration anyways. This just makes it easier to do since we'll actually have a guide to each spot."

Twilight was still hesitant, but relented after seeing the dragon's logic. "Alright. We're coming with you."

Sun and the two Pinkies smiled, although for different reasons thanks to Sun and his brother noticing similarities in personality to him and Sakura.

Leave it to logic and efficiency to win over a bookworm with virtually no social life.

 ** **Basically, for their new designs:****

 ** **Sunset – Greek warrior (or whatever her design in Legend of Everfree is based off of) + samurai with Nidaime influence (particularly around the face) +**** ** _ **Okami's**_** ** **Amaterasu design.****

 ** **Dash – Hermes +**** ** _ **Legend of Zelda**_** ** **Link +Ruby Rose (with the mentioned differences)****

 ** **Pinkie –**** ** _ **Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep**_** ** **Ventus****

 ** **Rarity –**** ** _ **Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep**_** ** **Terra (with the mentioned differences)****

 ** **Jack –**** ** _ **Xenoblade Chronicles**_** ** **Shulk (with the mentioned differences)****

 ** **Fluttershy –**** ** _ **Inuyasha**_** ** **Inuyasha + miko + Katara (his is a more ceremonial version of Inuyasha's outfit, with design changes from**** ** _ **Avatar: The Last Airbender**_** ** **Katara and**** ** _ **Naruto: Shippuden**_** ** **Tenten)****

 ** **It's meant to signify them upgrading to a new 'chapter' of their lives.****

 ** **As for the parts in Ponyville, it's like that because I wanted to go through each of their arrivals separately, unlike with the Mane 7 where they were together when they showed up in that world.****

 ** **Until next time. Please let me know what you think.****


	11. Chapter 11

****Hello, again.****

 ** **Last time, they dealt with the Zombie Brothers and Harpy Sakura became Blood Blossom. Now we'll be dealing with a bit more of the aftermath, such as Gato. However, that won't necessarily mean the end of Wave, since their liberation is definitely something worth celebrating.****

 ** **Perspective: Sakura/Sunset****

 ** **Don't own MLP or Naruto, by the way.****

It Has Begun

Wh...where am I?

 _That was the first thing going through Sakura's head as she woke up to floating darkness. However, it wasn't long before she recognized it._ My mindscape? What am I doing here again?

 _Her questions were cut off as she heard a dark laugh echo through the place, before a spot in front of her started turning blood red. As it grew, her eyes started to widen as she saw vines appear in her view. They were exactly like the ones she unleashed on Konoha that day. Her fear only grew as a figure that was all too recognizable landed on one of the vines nearest her._ No, it can't be!

 _"_ _Oh, but I assure you. I'm as real as they come._ _" she told Sakura. "_ _And whether you like it or not, Blood Blossom is here to stay._ _"_

 _She started laughing again, but her conversation with Sakura would have to wait..._

...because that was when the girl woke up with a loud scream, shocking the entire house awake. Sunset in particular, due to being right beside, was affected enough to hit the ceiling then drop down onto the ground from the sudden and loud action.

He groaned as he sat up, but quickly directed his attention to Sakura once he heard her hyperventilating. "Sakura!"

He swept her into a hug as tears of joy started forming in his eyes, unaware of the fear in her eyes nor how his contact slowly drained it away.

"S-s-sunset?" she stuttered out.

Sun pulled back to make eye contact. "Yes, it's me. Everything's okay now."

"But..." she tried to say before Sun cut in with a kiss, calming her down quickly with the new thoughts of love and compassion coming from the lips on her own.

After they split, he told her, "We know about Blood Blossom, but that can wait. Hidan and Kakuzu have been dealt with, and soon it'll be Gato's turn. But first we should get downstairs and tell everyone you good to go again."

Deciding on just following Sun's example, she got up and walked with him to where she found Zabuza, Haku, and surprisingly Sun's brothers there alongside Tsunami and Inari. The youngest of the group was sitting near Dash with a look of hero-worship focused primarily on the rainbow-haired boy.

"Guess who's up?" Sun called out, getting smiles from all around once they noticed the two.

"Welcome back, girl." Zabuza said in greeting. "Tazuna, Kakashi, and Sasuke had to go to the bridge, so they couldn't be here now. They'll certainly be glad to see you're up as well."

"Although I do have to ask," Haku piped up with a curious expression. "Did Blood Blossom give you a boost or something?"

Sakura raised an eyebrow before looking down and yelped as Haku's words were correct. It wasn't much, but it was definitely visible. Sun quickly got in the way and glared at Haku, who had the decency to look sheepish at what just happened.

"Next time, it better be with your own girlfriend. Got it?" he stated, getting a nod in return. "Good."

Just then, Sasuke burst through the door in a hurry. "Gato's at the bridge, and he's brought an army."

They just took one quick look at each other before running out, Sasuke leading the way.

 ** **XXXXX****

Upon their arrival, they found that for some reason it was little more than a standoff between Gato and his goons and Kakashi, Tazuna, and his workers. They thought Gato would've tried something by then, and they would have to jump into the remains of a fight or something.

So why are they still waiting?

"Sensei!" Sun called out as they joined the silver-haired man in front of the civilians.

"Sun, Sakura, glad to see you with us." Kakashi returned. "As for them, I honestly am wondering just what exactly their playing at myself."

"I thought it'd be more fitting and easier to take you all out together instead of letting some of you escape to bring more and cause more problems." Gato said smugly, thinking that the group he had with him, plus the group waiting in the wings, could take out all of them.

They all, including the workers, sweat-dropped at that. Did he really think thugs stood a chance against two jonin, one more or less chunin, three genin, and five civilians with powers?

Sun shook his head to focus, shouting, "It doesn't matter, because made a big mistake when you thought it was okay to hurt others for your own sick pleasure, let alone an entire country!"

As he said that, he and his brothers started glowing like they did when they fixed the village after Blood Blossom's first appearance. They also all shared an expression of profound determination, with some anger thrown in. But what sparked interest was when each of them started showing traits of their respective abilities/talents, with Rare and Jack getting crystal and wood armor, Shy getting a feral look to him, Pinkie gained an aura that seemed to explode on occasion, while Dash and Sun each were covered in lightning/wind/rain and chakra respectively.

Sun's voice started echoing as he proclaimed, "But now it's about high time your reign of terror comes to an end! We'll be shutting you down for good, right here, right now!"

Next thing anyone knew, the glows suddenly intensified, merged above them, and flew straight towards the now shocked Gato, forming an open hand along the way. It grabbed the small man, lifted him up, and promptly tossed him towards the horizon. However, it wasn't done as it balled up into a fist, and then slammed down on the part of the bridge the thugs were on, unleashing a shockwave of color that launched them all off the bridge and into the water below.

As the construct faded away, the ones left looked towards the six boys, finding them in a position as though they had just slammed their fist down on something as well. And once it was fully gone, they slumped down onto their knees as one, showing fatigue.

"Guys?" Sakura asked in concern, only to be waved off as it turned out to just be strange exhaustion coming from whatever just happened. "But still, just what was that?"

"Ah don't know." Jack spoke up. "But it certainly was sumthin' beyond anything before."

"Not to mention awesome!" Dash cried, lightly pumping his fist.

"Although once we get enough energy back, we should get supplies." Pinkie told them. "Don't want to be late for setting up for the party to celebrate Wave's freedom, now would we?"

They barely had time to admit that he was right before he grabbed Jack, Dash, Rare and Shy and seemingly disappeared back to Konoha. Afterwards, Sasuke turned to Tazuna and his workers and said, "You heard the boy. Let's get crackin'!"

That got their attention quickly enough, eliciting cheers as they got back to work, but with a newly invigorated flair. Their problem is now over, so nothing stands in the way of finishing the bridge and celebrating their newfound freedom.

However, Sasuke had another reason for diverting their attention. He also didn't want to be near his teammates, in case they started being affectionate to each other. In other words, he was starting to become jealous of their relationship, and he didn't quite want to face the truth just yet.

He got hit in the face with a balled up paper as he walked off. Opening it up revealed that it was a note from Pinkie saying,

' _Don't worry. You will get someone before the Exams are up._ '

He could barely keep the exasperated groan silent as he crumbled it back up and tossed it away while setting fire to it. _Pinkie just can't stay out of my business, can he?_

' _Not really._ ' was on the note that came right after that thought.

"WILL YOU STOP DOING THAT?"

' _Do what?_ '

"ARGH!"

 ** **I know it isn't much, but this is mainly to start bringing up the big connection between the Uzumaki brothers. They are based around the Mane 6/Humane 7 after all. As for the bit with Sasuke at the end, he is going to get a love interest as well, but it's also a bit of fun at his expense.****

 ** **Until next time. Please let me know what you think.****


	12. Chapter 12

****Hello, again.****

 ** **This is mainly filler, during the celebration of Wave's Liberation. Anything else will be more on the spot than anything actually planned.****

 ** **Perspective: Team 7 (primarily)****

 ** **Don't own MLP or Naruto, by the way.****

Party Time, people!

Sun smiled as he looked on at the partying Wave citizens, courtesy of Pinkie Pie's Party Bombs. He wasn't entirely sure just how Pinkie created them, but they were basically Explosive Tags that unleashed a properly decorated/designed party scene on wherever it affected.

He saw Pinkie, Jack, and Rare over by the stands to cater with food and clothes, albeit with Rare getting some fabric from the citizens as well as the stash he brought with him to work with. Shy kept most of the younger ones occupied with the local surviving animals, except Inari and a couple of others who were with Dash off to the side.

The rainbow-haired boy was keeping their attention with his taijutsu and speed, although that might have something to do with most of Inari's companions were boys who were into that sort of thing. The couple of girls with them were mainly interested in him having a rainbow color theme.

Sun himself mainly kept out of the way, leaving them to it while he made small talk with the occasional adult.

He then felt a pair of arms wrap around him and a pair of lips kiss his neck. "Hey, Sun."

"Hey, Sakura." He turned his head to face her, locking in a quick kiss. "Great to see you in the party."

"Pinkie knows how to make a good one, after all." said Sakura, then changed the subject. "So how's the story coming along?"

Sun's expression took a bit of a cringe. "Not so good at the moment on my end at least. A few of the names still need work."

Sakura was about to continue that line of conversation, but was interrupted when Tsunami came up to the two. "Oh, Tsunami. How are you doing?"

"Quite well, thanks for asking." The woman told them, bowing. "I'd also like to thank you personally for what you and your allies have done for us."

"No problem, Tsunami." Sun said. "We're happy to help."

"Although, I do have one question." Tsunami asked a bit hesitantly, glancing at Dash. "Is that hair color natural?"

Sun and Sakura chuckled. "Despite what it may seem, me and my brothers are completely natural. Including the hair."

"Then...how are you brothers?" she asked the couple, which got their moods to sour. "I'm sorry. You don't have to say anything if you don't want to."

"It's...just...not something we like to talk about." said Sun.

"Let's just say they're the result of the worst thing to happen to a woman, with the victim being one of the best people around." said Sakura.

Tsunami gasped a bit, paling as she realized just what they were implying. But before her own mood could get any more sour, they hugged her in comfort.

"It's been months since then, and you weren't there." Sun told her. "So don't let our pain hurt you."

"But-" any further response was silenced when she saw the look in their eyes. "Okay."

"Besides, this isn't a time for the past." Sun said. "Wave is free now. We should set our sights on the bright future that now lays before us."

"You know it!" Pinkie declared from right behind Tsunami, causing her to jump in surprise. He then spoke directly to Sun. "Think the two of you could do a little number in honor of Tsunami and Kaiza?"

Sun and Sakura shared a look while Tsunami stood confused, then smiled. "I don't see why not."

The pair walked over to where the volunteer musicians were stationed, and then Pinkie spoke out to the crowd. "Ladies and gentleman, could I have your attention please? Now, I know we did help bring freedom to Wave, but we weren't the ones who _first_ brought hope. And so, in honor of said couple, otherwise known as Tsunami and Kaiza, please join me in welcoming a musical number done by Sparkle Sunset and Haruno Sakura."

The most exuberant of the audience were Tazuna and Inari, knowing exactly what Pinkie was talking about. And once the song actually started, Tsunami quickly joined them.

 ** **[Mashup – How Far I'll Go the Distance]****

The musicians didn't have any real idea of what was causing them to play a certain tune, but didn't question it. Especially when Sakura started singing. " _I've been staring at the edge of the water, long as I can remember, never really knowing why. I wish I could be the perfect daughter, but I come back to the water, no matter how hard I try._ "

She turned to Sun. " _Every turn I take, every trail I track, every path I make, every road leads back, to the place I know, where I cannot go, where I long to be._ " Her line of sight then landed on the horizon as she moved towards it a few feet. " _See the line where the sky meets the sea? It calls me. And no one knows, how far it goes. If the wind in my sail on the sea stays behind me, one day I'll know, if I go there's just no telling how far I'll go._ "

She then went silent, leaving a brief window for the instruments before Sun started singing. " _I have often dreamed of a far off place, where a hero's welcome would be waiting for me. Where the crowds would cheer when they see my face, and a voice keeps saying 'This is where I'm meant to be.' I'll be there someday, I can go the distance. I will find my way if I can be strong. I know every mile would be worth my while,_ "

As he sung, Tsunami started tearing up as she started seeing herself and Kaiza in their places, singing before a beach sunrise. The emotions in the air just picked up as they continued singing, only this time in tandem. " _When I go the distance, I'll be right where I belong_ _._ _Down an unknown road/Every turn I take, every trail I track_ _,_ _To embrace my fate/Every path I make, every road leads back_ _,_ _Though that road may wander, it will lead me to you_ _._ _And a thousand years/I can lead with pride, I can make us strong_ _,_ _Would be worth the wait/I'll be satisfied if I play along_ _._ _It might take a lifetime/But a voice inside sings a different song_ _,_ _But somehow I'll see it through/Where I long to be._ "

" _And I won't look back, I can go the distance/See the line where the sky meets the sea? It calls me_ _,_ _And no one knows, how far it goes_ _,_ _And I'll stay on track, no I won't accept defeat/If the wind in my sail on the sea stays behind me_ _,_ _And one day I'll know_ _._ _What's beyond that line, will I cross that line?_ "

Next thing anyone knew, the two started floating upwards some as chakra started dancing over their bodies. " _See the line where the sky meets the sea? It calls me_ _._ _And no one knows, how far it goes_ _._ _If the wind in my sail on the sea stays behind me_ _,_ _one day I'll know, how far I'll go_ _!_ "

As the song came to a close, everyone watching and listening started singing as well, increasing the volume until it seemed loud enough for people on the mainland could hear it perfectly. " _Like a shooting star, I will go the distance_ _._ _I will search the world, I will face it's harms_ _._ _I don't care how far, I can go the distance_ _,_ _'til I find my hero's welcome waiting in your arms_ _!_ "

As Sun and Sakura finished, they embraced and floated back down to the ground with serene smiles on their faces.

 ** **[End Song]****

The citizens of Wave clapped energetically at the performance as they separated and moved to join Jack and Rare at the stands.

"Magnificent as always, dear brother." said Rare, smiling. "And the same to you, Sakura."

Sakura beamed. "Thanks, Rare. How are things with fixing Wave so far?"

"Quite well, all things considered." said Rare. "Surprisingly enough, I didn't have to worry too much about the state of their clothes, so it was mainly just patching things up for them. But still...they shouldn't have needed something like this!"

"We know, brother, but that's over now." Jack reassured, then asked, "By the way, where'd ya reckon Zabuza and Haku had gone off to?"

"They had quickly went off back to Kiri to join the Rebellion." Sun explained, remembering that little meeting. "Zabuza thought it was about time to stop running and do something about it, although I think Haku might have something to do with his decision."

"At any rate, they had left a while ago." Sakura finished.

"Boo!" Pinkie pouted out of nowhere. "Those meanies didn't bother to stay for the party."

"Not everyone has the time for parties, brother." Sun said.

"But still..." whined Pinkie before noticing something. "Oh, it's time for Pin the Tail!"

He sped off, leaving them to their own conversation once more.

In the meantime, Sasuke was staying back and just stuck to look on at everything happening around him. Despite how he may have seemed at times to people, he rather liked the parties Pinkie created, or at least the ones he could attend. The biggest problem was that most things had a tendency to remind him of when he lost his family at the hands of his brother. While the parties do remind him on occasion of that, they do help him focus more on the fact that Pinkie was pretty well trying to make him see since the beginning.

There is far better and more important things to focus on in life than nightmares and loss, like the good moments you had beforehand.

Doesn't mean he's going to be saying anything to anyone, though. He's still got an image to maintain.

He noticed his sensei coming up towards him, teasingly asking once he was close enough, "So, the great Uchiha is actually a wallflower?"

Deciding on at least trying to catch him off guard, the boy responded with, "Or maybe I'm actually smart enough to leave any potential fangirls without me as a target. Don't need any more."

He at least managed to get the man to momentarily stop and blink at that, but it was fleeting enough that he barely managed to catch it. But he caught enough to smirked inwardly. Even with it being a simple random statement, the fact it was 'The Prince of Emos' that said it was not something anyone would really think entirely possible.

Of course, it also meant that he once again didn't notice Pinkie's presence until he heard from behind him, "Did the Prince of Emos just crack a joke?"

 _Oh, great. Here we go._ Sasuke silently groaned as he turned to a comically slack-jawed Pinkie, somehow with his jaw easily six times lower than normal. "What of it?"

The pink-colored boy glomped Sasuke and started bouncing around. "This is AMAZING! We finally got you to joke! I just have to tell the others!"

"No you-GET BACK HERE!" he cried as Pinkie ran off, not wanting him to say anything about it, leaving Kakashi to laugh good-naturedly at that.

"Hahahaha, oh Sasuke. It may have been a terrible beginning, but Sunset, Pinkie, and the others have been some of the best influences we could ever have. Sensei wouldn't be happy with what happened to Naruto, but he would be proud of the six. Of that I can be sure."

 ** **Like I said, this is mainly filler, but it also serves as a bit of a break from the main story. Next time, they'll be returning to Konoha.****

 ** **Until then. Please let me know what you think.****


	13. Chapter 13

****Hello, again.****

 ** **Now that Wave is done, Team 7 and the Uzumaki brothers have returned to Konoha. This will be similar to what I did with the omake of them arriving in Ponyville, mainly to do a little bit with all of them before going back to normal routine with perspective. This will also take place during the time before the Chunin Exams, so Gaara, Temari, and Kankuro will return.****

 ** **Minor note: Jack's hummed tune is from**** ** _ **Father Goose**_** ** **, starring Cary Grant and Leslie Caron.****

 ** **Perspective: n/a****

 ** **Don't own MLP or Naruto, by the way.****

Back to Konoha

 ** **XXJackXX****

"Home sweet home." Jack saidd as he walked towards where the tools were kept. "It ain't gonna take care of itself, though."

He started humming to himself as he got the tools and got to work. Even with his abilities, some of the work around the farm required a simpler approach in comparison. Although working with his actual hands made him feel like he was actually giving back to the trees and earth. So he stuck to using Mokuton when it came to trimming/pruning and plucking the apples.

After a couple of trees, though, he stopped as he heard a familiar voice ask, "Care for a hand?"

He smiled as he turned and saw Gaara and his siblings were there. "Sure, ya'll, but since this time isn't an actual mission, Ah hope ya'll be okay with about a barrel of cider for your personal use."

"Think it can be two?" Gaara asked. "Mother wants one barrel to herself."

Jack raised an eyebrow. "So what, the Ichibi's addicted or somethin'?"

Gaara nodded, getting Jack to whistle. "Well Ah'll be. Ah'll see what Ah can dish out, but teh be safe, Ah'll either have to make a few trees do double time at the moment, or get Sun and the Hokage to help with more room. Yer not the only ones who want some after all, so it'll help with maintaining the orders."

The three siblings understood what Jack was talking about. Jack still had a business to run, and the place wasn't quite as big as some might think. However, Temari did come up with an idea that might help. "How about this? The barrel for Gaara, and we just have a meal together in the meantime."

The three boys all agreed to that, finding it better all around. Not to mention it was free food in Kankuro's eyes.

"Well then." Jack said as he stood before them. "Ah'll set you up, then go find the Hokage at least teh help with the expansion. Been meaning teh do that for a while, anyways."

That worked for the Suna nins.

"By the way, what are ya'll doing here anyways?" Jack asked as they walked.

"The Chunin Exams." Temari told him. "It's coming up soon, and we just came a few days early to avoid the normal rush. Plus your apples are just delicious."

Jack chuckled. "That they are, Temari. That they are."

 ** **XXDashXX****

"Ugh, this is so boring!" Dash whined.

There weren't many deliveries that day, so Dash ended up being stuck helping Iruka and Hiruzen in the office with missions and other paperwork. Of course, being who he is, it quickly got on his nerves and patience. He was one of the more active of the brothers, so he couldn't handle desk work for all that long.

Iruka and Hiruzen chuckled at the boy.

"Sorry Dash, but this type of work is necessary as well." Iruka said. "But things won't stay like this for too long."

"Right. The Exams." Dash smiled in thought, the frowned. "Too bad I can't join. It'd be far more fun than this, for sure."

"You're not the only one who wants to get away from this, Dash." Hiruzen muttered a bit loud, getting a look from Iruka and a laugh from Dash. He glared at the two, but only Iruka responded in a manner that he liked.

They were interrupted when the door opened to let in Jack. "Howdy."

"Hello, Jack. What brings you here?" Hiruzen asked.

"Gaara and his siblings showed up today, and they reminded meh of somethin' Ah've been meanin' to do fer a while." Jack explained. "Think somethin' could be done to allow meh to expand? If not, Ah'll just get Sun to help using seals."

Hiruzen was silent for a bit before he spoke. "I'll see if there is something that can be done, but in the meantime, it'll probably be best to speak to Sun either way. At the very least, seals give the possibility of making the place a pocket dimension of sorts."

"Yeh mean like make the land bigger than it actual is?" Jack asked, having a faint idea of what Hiruzen was saying.

"Indeed." the man said. "The effects of seals are virtually limitless in comparison to other styles out there. It wouldn't be beyond the limits of a Seal Master, and with Sun's unique abilities, I wouldn't put it past him either to figure out a way."

Dash then stood up. "I'll go get him then."

"Just tell him to meet meh at the house. Ah'll fill him in there." Jack said. "Although yeh can go and let the others know that we'll be having Gaara, Temari, and Kankuro over fer a meal today. Not sure about their sensei though."

"Okey-dokey." Dash answered before running off, rainbow colors trailing behind him.

Jack then tilted his hat, said "Thank ye kindly. Take care." then went back to the farm, leaving the two men to the paperwork that most, if not all, dread.

 ** **XXRareXX****

"Have a good day!" Rare said to another satisfied customer. He then felt a pair of arms wrap around him. "How have you been, Ino?"

"Better, now that I'm with you." She said as she kissed him. "I also brought lunch."

Rare chuckled as he turned around. "You and the others are too good to us."

"Helps that we got some of the best catch in the village." She smirked, then playfully sighed. "Too bad no one caught Dash or Pinkie yet."

Rare laughed at that, continuing when they heard Hinata say, "Oh please, get a room you two. You're in the middle of a shop."

"You'd sing a different tune if it was with Jack." Rare responded good-naturedly. "By the way, where is he?"

Said boy suddenly burst through the door, panting. "Sorry, Hinata. Ah didn't notice the time."

"At least you're here now." She said as she kissed the farmer boy. "Now we can go on that picnic."

"Picnic?" Jack asked

"Hinata thought a double date picnic sounded nice, and I agree." Ino explained. She turned to Rare. "What about you?"

Neither Rare or Jack said anything until a clone of themselves appeared from their respective elements, then said together, "That answer your question?"

The girls wrapped their arms around their respective boyfriend, only to get picked up in a bridal carry and walked off.

The clones looked at each other, shrugged, and went back to their respective work. If the originals were with the girls, then they quite needed to sate them. Although there was also the fact that the two were pretty well the most stubborn of the six, they would have a bit of trouble keeping them from doing something such as creating clones to work for them in the first place.

 ** **XXShyXX****

"Alright, you're good to go." Shy said to a young pup that was just in for a check up. "Nice job."

The pup bark as he put it down on the ground before Hana escorted it out.

It was the last of a semi-recent set that was born to the Inuzuka clan, and Shy was asked to help with it. Although, granted, that was usually how it went, thanks to how animals usually reacted around him. Either, it didn't quite matter to him. He was just happy to help anyway he could.

Didn't mean he wouldn't need a break sooner or later himself, and he could certainly use one right then. And apparently Hana thought so too.

"Take a break. You've been here for quite a while today." She told him, giving him a hug.

"I know, Hana." he said. "But those check ups weren't going to do themselves."

"And we are grateful for your help." She assured. "But we all deserve a break sooner or later. Now come on."

She led him outside the main door and sat him down on a bench that had a bento on it. "Now you eat and relax. Even a couple of the animals were suggesting it."

"Oh." Fluttershy hung his head a bit. "Sorry."

"Shy, that's not what I was going for." Hana said as she sat down with him. "You've been doing so much already, but even you and your brothers have limits."

"I know, but you do recall who we came from, right?" Shy asked, getting a nod.

"Yeah, Naruto." She said. "But you're not him. You're your own person, Fluttershy. And we love you just the way you are."

The boy smiled and hugged her before proceeding to eat the bento and take that much needed break. As she went back inside, he let his mind wander as he reflected on how things have went since Naruto's departure and their creation. _Kind of hard to believe that it's actually been a few months since that day._

While not all of it has truly connected to him personally, he was still connected to a lot of it. But one thing in particular that he was a part of was the upcoming Chunin Exams. As the only one who could really tame the creatures within the Forest of Death, the Hokage had asked him recently to see if anything could be done in regards to its inhabitants. Thankfully for him it wasn't anything like moving all of them or straight up killing them, but it didn't mean it didn't cause at least a bit of a problem for him.

How exactly was he supposed to placate giant animals and bugs enough to differentiate between teams simply passing through and teams that actually 'invade?'

Unlike some of his brothers, Shy wasn't physical by nature. He preferred trying to make peace between warring factions, be they man or animal. But he also had some trouble trying to enforce a drastic change in lifestyle on others, so he had no real idea how to truly begin with the 'request.'

His thoughts were interrupted by a strange voice asking, "Everything alright, kid?"

Looking up, he saw a girl with mint green hair looking at him in curiosity.

"Oh, sorry." He said. "It's just something that came up. Nothing for you to be concerned about."

The girl raised an eyebrow. "We were standing here for five minutes, and only once I spoke did you actually notice."

Shy blushed in embarrassment.

She then introduced herself. "I'm Fu. You wouldn't happen to be Fluttershy of the Uzumaki brothers, would you?"

He nodded, then noticed Team 8 walking towards him. That changed once Shino noticed Fu and stopped moving. Shy smiled as he developed a feeling about what stopped Shino. "Ms. Fu, you wouldn't happen to have any connection to bugs, would you?"

Fu tensed, but was caught off guard when he continued as he pointed. "More than likely because of that, you have just got yourself an admirer in the Aburame Heir. Although that might be partly because of your own personal beauty."

She spun around, a blush on her face at Shy's words, which opened a path for Shy to sneak back into the building to continue working. And while he may still have trouble working out an idea to deal with the Forest of Death, he did have more motivation for doing so.

He wasn't about to let a potential match die before it could start.

 ** **XXPinkieXX****

"Take care, you guys!" Pinkie chirped to Team 8 as they left the stand. He then skipped into the back as Ayame was about to call for him. "Clean dishes, coming right up!"

The girl laughed. "You always seem to know what going on, Pinkie. Thanks anyway."

"No problem." He then went to work on the dishes, a clone appearing out of literal nowhere to dry off and put them away once he was done with them. All the while, he and his clone hummed a tune Ayame recognized beginning as _Blunt the Knives, Bend the Forks_...

She smiled as she joined in, spending a few moments with her surrogate brother just loosing herself to work and the tune. However, it wasn't long before another customer came in. "Pinkie, think you-"

"Already finished here, so I got it." He said before she could finish, the clone nowhere to be found.

Of course, once he walked out to see to the customer's desire, he stopped and his jaw dropped. Staring back at him was a red-headed girl in glasses with a similar expression. And while he would admit she was pretty, that wasn't the thing that stunned him so completely.

"An...Uzumaki?" He asked to no one in particular. Still, the girl heard him, giving her the chance to compose and reply.

"Uh, yes, um, I'm Karin. Uzumaki Karin." she managed to get out, only to be caught up in a hug that was somehow both bone-crushing and not at the same time. The clone that went in to Ayame went unnoticed.

"I can't believe it! A real life Uzumaki! You simply must meet my brothers!" Pinkie cried before dragging the girl with enough speed to have her flying out behind him. Before she knew it, the sign for 'Sweet Apple Acres' focused into her view and Pinkie called out, "Yoohoo! Any one home?"

"Over here, Pinkie." They heard over behind the house, getting him to lead her over at a more sedate pace. This also gave her the chance to think about the boy leading her.

Karin couldn't believe what she was feeling. The boy had the craziest chakra she had ever come across. Bright like the sun, potent like a bijuu, and yet empty like a vacuum. Then there was also how he needed only one look to figure out she was an Uzumaki. She had no idea what to think at all.

It only got more confusing once they rounded the corner and she saw the others that were already there.

"So who's the new girl, Pinkie?" Sun asked as he, Sasuke, Sakura, Jack, and Dash were taking a quick lunch break.

"Uzumaki Karin, Naruto's cousin." Pinkie said, getting all of them to spit-take in surprise. "She's also a natural sensor."

Sun flared his chakra out and envelope Karin for a bit before receding as he sighed. "Only you, Pinkie. Only you."

"She's truly an Uzumaki?" Dash asked, getting a nod. "Well, dang."

"Howdy, Karin." Jack greeted, standing up and walking over. "Ah'm Apple Jack, but yeh can call me Jack. Care teh join us?"

"...Sure." Karin shrugged, not bothering to really think period. It was all rather surreal still, but she still felt a familial connection revealing itself between herself, Pinkie, Jack, Dash, and Sunset. She just decided to stop trying and stayed neared Pinkie in particular.

Who knows, maybe she could actually move to Konoha sooner or later and join the family for good.

 ** **XXTeam 7XX****

"Alright, that's enough for today." Kakashi said. "Although I might need to talk to you later, so try and stay together."

The silver-haired man then disappeared in a puff of smoke, leaving Sunset, Sakura, and Sasuke alone.

"Now what?" Sakura asked the two boys, only to get a response from Blossom. "You could let me out for a spin. I can think of a few people we could do without in the living world."

"No way!" She yelled.

Sun raised an eyebrow. "Blossom?"

Sakura nodded, then Sun said, "Then how about we just stick to heading to the farm and getting something to eat. More than likely, sensei left because of the Chunin Exams coming up, so should he come back, we'd be at a suitable spot to do at least some wind-down training. What do you guys think?"

"Sounds good to me." Sakura said, while Sasuke nodded. Neither had anything better to do, and they weren't about to turn away good food.

As they walked, they occasionally noticed teams from other villages around the place, confirming their suspicions on the exams. They could also see traces of a Pinkie created party showing up all over. He was certainly pulling all the stops for this one.

"This will certainly be quite the event, huh?" Sasuke idly asked.

"Pinkie always did prefer giving flair to the events that deserved it." Sun told him. "He is still willing to do things like simple birthdays, but he isn't about to bring _everyone possible_ to attend what should be a personal family affair. He's not going to needlessly embarrass someone like that."

Sasuke just grunted, not caring either way.

When they finally arrived, they found Jack and Dash about to sit down for lunch as well behind the house. "Hey, guys. Mind if we join you?"

"Help yerself." Jack said, pointing to a stack of various foods that rarely had apples not in them on a nearby table.

Team 7 selected a few options each and sat down. But just as they started eating, they heard Pinkie call out, "Yoohoo! Any one home?"

"Over here, Pinkie." Sun called back. A minute or so later, Pinkie comes into view with a red-haired girl in glasses that he recognized was a shinobi from Kusa. "So who's the new girl, Pinkie?"

None of them expected Pinkie's answer to be "Uzumaki Karin, Naruto's cousin. She's also a natural sensor."

An Uzumaki?! Are you kid... "Sigh. Only you, Pinkie. Only you."

"She's truly an Uzumaki?" Dash asked, getting a nod. "Well, dang."

"Howdy, Karin." Jack greeted, standing up and walking over. "Ah'm Apple Jack, but yeh can call me Jack. Care teh join us?"

"...Sure." Karin shrugged, obviously blank from the shocks she must've gotten today.

However it did give one possibility that Sun and his brothers have been wanting for quite a while now: knowledge about the family. At least this will give access to some knowledge from the Uzumaki side.

Just not sure how much exactly they would get.

 ** **For the record, this isn't all just one day.****

 ** **And at the very least, brought in a potential for Pinkie, many because out of the Uzumaki in canon, the only one so far that was a natural sensor instead of a straight powerhouse was Karin. Nagato had the Rinnegan, and Mito, Kushina, and Naruto had the Kyubi (among other things). What did Karin have to give her the power her kin had? However, Pinkie and Dash are still up in the air with their girlfriends, so Karin might not go to him.****

 ** **Until then. Please let me know what you think.****


	14. Chapter 14

****Hello, again.****

 ** **Now comes the Chunin Exams and all it curtails. Let's see how the brothers will handle it- "Hey, YatsuKat."****

 ** **...what?****

 **" **It's just Pinkie, and I just wanted to ask something. You going to turn that omake you made about Mom and Dad coming back into part of the actual story?"****

 ** **Sorry, but even you will have to wait to find out.****

 **" **Aw! Pretty please?"****

 ** **Sun!****

 **" **Pinkie! Get over here now!"****

 **" **Ok, fine."****

 **… **weird.****

 ** **Perspective: Team 7 (primarily)****

 ** **Don't own MLP or Naruto, by the way.****

It's a Small World after all

The sun was shining. The birds were chirping. And as for Team 7, they were investigating the strange additions to the now sizable crystal tree.

Especially while they were out in Nami, the tree had grown from the small sapling it was when Rare and Pinkie first learned of it. However, in recent days, six strange objects have started growing on some of the branches. They were crystalline like the tree, but each had a different color that was rather faint. But they didn't think too much into it in case the color changed later on.

Overall, they were just there to monitor the situation for the time being. Although Sun was focusing more on setting up security around the tree. In fact...

"Just about...finished!" He declared as the last line sealed into place. "That should take care of things for the time being. Just need to activate the array and we're good."

He channeled chakra through his open palm and into the seals. The circle they made glowed for a few moments before dying down, eliciting Sun stopping his chakra flow. As he turned to his teammates, he found himself glomped by Sakura. "Okay, not that I don't appreciate being hugged vigorously by my girlfriend, but...?"

"I just felt like it." she replied, only to turn to Sasuke as they heard him gag. "Buzzkill."

"Then get a room you two." Sasuke retorted before stopping. "On second thought, don't. I don't want to think about what might happen then."

"Hey, you said it, not us." Sun and Sakura said, laughing at Sasuke.

Just then, Kakashi appeared in a Shushin. "Yo. I've got some news for you three."

"You nominated us for the Chunin Exams, right?" Sun asked. When he noticed Kakashi's startled expression, he explained. "Pinkie told me this morning over my morning cider."

Kakashi grumbled a bit, then quickly composed himself again. "Yes, that is correct. While I do believe in all of you, another reason is actually because of Blood Blossom. Jiraiya should return during the exams, giving him a chance to help determine what should be done about her."

"Like I'm going to allow myself to be sealed away without a fight!" Blossom declared in Sakura's head with enough force to give her a headache. Sakura then told them what Blossom said, getting grim looks from all of them.

"My point exactly." Kakashi said. "We do not fully understand her, let alone her true intentions. Something has to be done before even just you are in danger from her, Sakura. Besides the Hokage, he's the best one we currently have to dealing with something like this. Although if you end up taking care of the issue yourself before hand, then no harm done."

"Fair enough." Sakura agreed, not assured of her current prospects. She smiled in comfort as Sun gently squeezed her, showing that he was there for her.

The man then pulled out three pieces of paper. "These will allow you entry. Be at room 301 in the Academy at the time on the paper in one week. However, you must come in as a team, but I will only get upset if any of you try and force the others to participate. If you decide to stick together with the one that doesn't want to take the exams, then I'll support you through it. Understand?"

"Yes, sensei." They answered. Didn't mean they were going to end up doing something like that in the first place, though. They were ready either way, and none of them were planning on holding the others back.

"Good luck." Kakashi end off before disappearing, taking the team's current notes about the tree with him.

"I guess we have the rest of the day off then." Sun noted. "Unless something happens, he must be letting us prepare for the exams."

"How about we wait for anything like training until tomorrow?" Sakura asked. "It's been a while since we had a date."

Sun raised an eyebrow. "And how do you propose us being able to do that with the exams coming in and Pinkie decorating for it. Unless you don't care about it, it isn't likely we'll get some quality alone time. Especially in places such as restaurants."

Sakura merely pointed at a nearby food stand.

"Oh yeah. Some food stands have been set up to go after the pre-exam hungry people." Sun realized, remembering that some merchants have been known to set up beforehand to showcase their wares before the full event starts.

"I'll leave you two lovebirds to it th-" Sasuke said, moving to leave them before they all heard a cry nearby. "Was that the Hokage's gaki? Konohamaru?"

"Yeah. I wonder what happened?" Sun confirmed as they ran to the scene. Upon arrival, Sun and Sakura groaned.

As it had turned out, the kid had bumped into Kankuro and Temari, and Kankuro didn't take all that kindly to it if how he was holding Konohamaru up was any indicator. Although they did idly wonder where Gaara was.

"Kankuro." Sun called out, getting their attention. "The kid's name is Konohamaru, and he's the Hokage's grandson. I don't think that Gaara would like it if you force the Hokage to drive the three of you out, now would he?"

"Indeed." said red head revealed his presence right behind Kankuro and Temari. "Especially if it means no more apples from Jack."

That got the two to pale considerably as Kankuro gently let go of Konohamaru, who went over to Sun and his team. "Thanks, you guys."

"Where are your friends, Kono?" Sun asked.

"We were just playing in the area." Konohamaru explained. "I just didn't see where I was going when this happened."

"You might want to stick to places like the Academy for the moment." Sakura suggested. "Until the exams actually start, you'll be less likely to bump into someone else there."

"Will do." the boy said as he ran off, quickly joined by three others that they recognized as Udon, Moegi, and Hanabi.

Sasuke was confused by the last, and was vocal about it. "Is that Hinata's younger sister? How did she become good friends with them?"

"Hiashi may be a politician, but he's still a father." Sun explained. "He just needed a reminder that all work and no play isn't a good way for a child to grow."

"Let alone at all." Sakura added.

"Ah." Sasuke said, but in his mind he grumbled. _Wish someone had gotten to my dad like they had with Hinata's. Lucky._

They then heard a throat being cleared, reminding them that Gaara and his siblings were still there.

"Sorry about that." Sakura apologized for them. "Konohamaru is a particularly close friend of ours."

"It's okay." Temari assured. "But to help, are you guys going to be in the exams?"

"Yep." Sun and Sakura declared as Sasuke just nodded.

Temari smiled. "Good to see familiar will be there as well as us. Might even be some decent co-what the heck?"

She stopped in confusion as a song started echoing around the place. They all went silent to listen, until they recognized it and even Gaara groaned.

"'It's a Small World after All.'" Sun said out loud. "I'm on it."

*He concentrated for a moment, then created a dense ball of chakra that he spoke softly into. He jumped up and threw it away. After a brief silence, they heard a sound similar to an explosion go off, followed right by Sun's voice saying, "YOU BETTER CHANGE THE SONG PINKIE, OR YOU WILL REGRET IT!"

They could swear they heard Pinkie giggle as the song changed to " _I used to wonder what friendship could be..._ "

"Never heard that one before." Sun remarked. "But a definite improvement."

"I'll say." Sakura agreed before asking, "And since when could you do that?"

"I have the best chakra control out of my family, and my girlfriend and I are some of the smartest around Konoha for our age." Sun responded. "It isn't like I wouldn't figure it out sooner or later."

"It'll be a nice way to divert pursuers, though." Sasuke noted before Sakura could do anything. "Or, at the very least, surprise people with the sudden event."

Sakura slumped her shoulders. "True. But still..."

Sun kissed her and said, "Love, I never said I wouldn't try and teach you it. The biggest issues are just really the amount of chakra needed and turning it into the right type to explode on impact and let loose the words you speak into it."

"Any chance we could possibly join you in that?" Sasuke and the Suna team asked, completely serious. Even Gaara's 'mother' wanted to learn it.

"I'll have to see how well your control and capacity are first." Sun said, apologetic. "Not to mention get in touch with our Kages to make sure that there isn't a problem politically. I just want to be safe."

While they were mildly disappointed, they understood that there was some details that they needed to be careful of beforehand. It's just standard procedure.

 ** ***- combine the Rasengan with the Patronus message from Harry Potter, then make it capable of being thrown like a grenade.****

 ** **The song Pinkie switched to is the starting opening theme for My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic.****

 ** **Until then. Please let me know what you think.****


	15. Filler Omake

****Hello, again.****

 ** **Sorry if this is kind of out-of-sync or whatever you think of it, but this has been jumbling around in my head for a while now. Here's the omake side of the 'Harpy Incident' from Sun's brothers. I'll get back to the original thing after this.****

 ** **Perspective: Jack, Dash, Rare, Pinkie, Shy****

 ** **Don't own MLP or Naruto, by the way.****

Who is the monster and who is the man?

 _How could it have come to this?_ Fluttershy thought as tried to keep the younger kids calm. _Even considering how Sun acted around Sakura, how could Sakura have snapped so badly as to do this?_

He could faintly hear outside of the farm. People screaming and running, and Jack and Dash trying to get as many people to safety as possible. Somehow, the farm wasn't hit by anything of the feathers Sakura was shooting around the village, but that left it open for sanctuary thankfully.

While he was tasked with calming the kids, Rare and Pinkie were working non-stop in trying to keep everyone there at least fed and covered, partly thanks to some gaining tears in their clothes from the thorny vines. While they also got hurt from them, only the few that actually got stabbed needed actual intense medical attention. The rest were already scarred from the heat, so they just need to be cooled down.

Even so, this isn't something one can really handle with a level-head for the entire time. Especially with Sakura's declared ultimatum, which had both shinobi and civilians alike trying to find Fumihiro, who had seemingly disappeared.

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU CAN'T FIND THEM?!" Shy suddenly heard in the voice of Hiashi Hyuga, Hinata's father. Unfortunately, it cause small chain reaction in the kids.

"Shh. Shh. It's okay." Shy placated, but didn't have much an effect.

"Shy, we need to meet the others." Rare called out behind him. "Konohamaru and Hanabi are missing."

"What?!" Shy cried, shocked.

The two quickly sped off to meet their brothers, but not before reassuring that he would be back to the kids. They found the others talking with an angry and frantic Hiashi while Jack was trying to keep him calm and focused. He wouldn't be able to help find them in such a state.

Dash was the last to arrive, having taken one last look around town before checking. Of course, his new information couldn't come at a worse time in Hiashi's eyes in particular. "Sakura's taken them hostage!"

"WHAT DID YOU SAY?!" The man demanded, grabbing Dash's clothes in an instant.

"She's desperate enough to kill Fumihiro that she's putting them on the line." Pinkie explained. "She'll use them as an example to get the rest of us to cooperate."

"Not if I have anything to say about it." Hiashi growled as he let go of Dash. He activated his family bloodline, the Byakugan, and concentrated on what it showed.

In the meantime, a crowd had surrounded them, with a few of the other Clan Heads in front. Inuzuka Tsume was simply the first of them to voice out loud their own anger at this new development.

"Here we go." Pinkie said right before she burst into song.

[Kill the Beast – Beauty and the Beast]

" _No one's safe until he's dead._ " She sang, flexing her claws.

" _She'll come for us after tonight._ " Yamanaka Inoichi, Ino's father, went next.

" _And all to sacrifice her father to her temper's appetite._ " Shy added, horrified at the loss of life either way he saw it.

" _She'll destroy the entire village, if we let him wonder free._ " A man named Nara Shikaku, who had one time gotten Shy's help for his clan's deer, continued.

" _Well it's time to take some action, friends._ " Hiashi called out, having found where Fumihiro was hiding. " _We will not let him flee!_ He's over there!"

The crowd quickly followed the man as he ran off, not really caring about anything except capturing Haruno Fumihiro and delivering him to Sakura before sunrise.

Shy, Jack, Dash, and Rare, on the other hand, were stuck having to try and stop a mob while being sympathetic. It was pretty obvious that if Sakura was willing to threaten the lives of a potential Clan Heiress and a Kage's grandson, then who's to say she won't go after their children next to get people to bring her father to her.

However, before they could try and move to stop them, Pinkie got in the way. "Pinkie?"

"I'm sorry, but there isn't anything we can do." Pinkie told them, somber than they had ever seen him. "Sakura chose the best possible hostages to force this. Hanabi is Hiashi's daughter, and he is one of the most powerful men in Konoha thanks to the Uchiha Massacre all but wiping out the Uchiha Clan. And Konohamaru is the Hokage's grandson, who'd be even worse to go up against. I'm afraid all we can hope for is that Mebuki makes it in time for Sunset to stop Sakura."

That stopped the four cold. Was there really nothing they could do?

Back with Hiashi and the mob, they quickly found Fumihiro, who demanded as they tied him up, "Get off me! I'm not the monster here!"

"And I'm not about to lose either of my daughters!" Hiashi shot before turning to the crowd.

"Like I care when it's my life that brat is targeting! I should've killed her when I had the chance!" Fumihiro declared, which all but sealed his fate.

[Change to the beginning Native American part of Savages from Pocahontas. '/.../' indicates where Hiashi solos]

Inoichi slapped the man. " _This is what I feared. This traitor is a demon. The only he feels at all is greed._ "

" _Beneath that milky hide, there's emptiness inside._ " Hiashi added as Tsume raised her claws.

" _I wonder if he even bleeds._ " She sang herself before the crowd joined in.

" _His kind are savages, savages./Barely even human./ Savages, savages./Killers at the core._ "

Shikaku sang the next line as he forced Fumihiro to his feet. " _He betrayed Konoha, which means he can't be trusted._ "

" _And will sound the cry for war._ " Hiashi declared.

" _Traitorous savages._ " They all then looked up to where Sakura was waiting for. " _First we stop Sakura. Then we silence the cries for war._ "

" _Savages? Savages?!_ " Fumihiro responded. " _Then what do you call yourselves?!_ "

"Sakura! We got him!" Hiashi called out as loud as he could so that Sakura would hear. They then heard her respond with, "Bring him to me, but you better hurry. You're running out of time."

"Look!" a voice in the crowd said, revealing the sun coming over the horizon.

Fumihiro increased his struggling, but couldn't escape as Hiashi sang, " _We're running out of time._ "

All of them except for the captive joined in as they started moving. " _Now_ we _sound the cries for WAR!_ "

Pinkie was the only one who had anything to say to that. "How the heck did Sun not hear that?"

 ** **This was just mainly to get it out of my head, but if anyone was actually wondering about their side of the incident, then here you go.****

 ** **Until then. Please let me know what you think.****


	16. Chapter 16

****Hello, again.****

 ** **Let the Chunin Exams begin! Albeit with some 'scene changes' (the other brothers) thrown in. So Team 7 is going to be a mainstay for a while now.****

 ** **Also, if enough people like this idea, I'll see about how the Training Trip Arc that serves as a time skip can make a connection between the Shinobi Lands and Equestria/Earth. Sort of have them meet their respective canon counterparts or something.****

 ** **Perspective: Team 7,****

 ** **Don't own MLP or Naruto, by the way.****

Examining the Future

"Let's do this."

The day had finally arrived, which coincidentally ended up with Sun, Sakura, and Sasuke's first stop being the Academy, on account of it being where the first part of the Chunin Exams would take place.

And as a token to represent the occasion, Rare started working on new outfits for each of them. He promised to have ones all the brothers, Sasuke, Hinata, Sakura, Ino, and Hana at least by the time the Chunin Exams ended. It was only thanks to them actually knowing Rare's passion for fashion that kept them from going "Yeah, good luck with that."

If anything, he'd probably have them ready by the time the third part of the exam rolled in, ready to be displayed during the event. If not before.

As Team 7 walked up to the third floor to participate in the Chunin Exams, they came across a crowd in front of a guarded door on the second floor which confused them. What was so special about the second floor? They were ne- "Guys, they somehow think this is the third floor."

"Just means less competition, so let's move." Sasuke responded to Sakura's statement.

His teammates nodded and followed him through the crowd, mildly deflecting the genjutsu that was set up once they were close enough. While most were idly confused, only one of the teams that were actually there followed them. They made themselves known upon arrival at the correct door.

"It's been a while, Neji, Tenten, Lee." Sun greeted first.

"Indeed." Neji Hyuga, Hinata's cousin and prodigial shinobi before Sasuke, replied. "The mission to help at Sweet Apple Acres was usually taken whenever we came for missions."

"You could've still came around during your down time." Sun remarked. None of them really had an answer to that.

"My most humble apologies." a voice said from behind them. "I shall endeavor to have my team spend time at your most youthful establishment."

"Just stick with the occasional reminder, Gai." Sun told the man as they turned to face him. They also found Kakashi waiting for them with a chuckle.

"And again, the power of the Uzumaki brothers strikes, changing lives wherever it goes." Kakashi said, then moved away from a nearby door. "The exam's in there. Good luck."

"Thanks, sensei." Team 7 returned before walking into said room. And that's where they found all the other teams. Teams 8, 10, the Sand Siblings, and the Kusa, Kumo and Taki teams that Pinkie, Dash and Shy mentioned, to name the ones that they knew for certain.

"Looks like this is going to be a rather fun competition." Kiba quipped, looking around. "The gang's all here."

"Do bear in mind that some might not see it that way, Kiba." Sun told him. "Like the red-haired girl from Kumo. At least according to Dash, she can have the occasional anger-management issue to deal with. But that's just him, so we'll need to talk to her first."

"Although I'm sure a certain beetle would be willing to talk to the Taki team." Sakura teased. "He's been making eyes at said girl since we got here."

"I'd say the feelings mutual there, Sakura." Hinata giggled, joining in.

Shino was just stuck blushing, not having any real way to escape or counter. Fu wasn't much better, having heard it as well.

Thankfully for the pair, anything further was interrupted by a new arrival to the scene, being a silver-haired young man with glasses.

"I'm pleased to see that for once, rookies aren't acting arrogant or terrified about the exams. Nice change of pace." He greeted. "I'm Kabuto, by the way."

"Kind of hard to be truly either one when you're around an Uzumaki like Sun." Kiba answered, getting a chuckled "Touche." in return. "You could say they're a bit of a good luck charm."

"I wouldn't be surprised. Just about anything Sun or any of his brothers touch ends up better than for anyone else." Kabuto admitted. "Too bad the first time I officially met any of them was during the seventh time I've been through this."

"Ouch." Sun winced, and he wasn't the only one.

"I know." Kabuto sighed. "But it did give me time to gather information and see how I might stack up next time."

The moment when he brought out a set of seemingly blank cards, however, Sun instantly sensed the chakra in them, and didn't like how it felt. _I'm going to have to keep an eye on this guy._

His wariness only grew when he started hearing just how detailed the information was. _I know that genin can be pretty good at information gathering, but this is beyond. He's_ too _good._

However, he had to temporarily stop that train of thought as Kabuto finished speaking. "-don't be too concerned about the Oto team, though. Their relatively new to the scene, and don't have much to truly work with just yet."

Said team, wearing an ensemble of fur trim, bandages, and gray camo, promptly attacked after he was done. But they were quickly deflected by Sun, who wrapped up the two boys in floating chakra while Sasuke got in the way of the girl, who for some reason just stared at him.

"That sort of reaction is just proving your either weak or arrogant, and thus shouldn't be considered a proper threat." Sakura told them as Sasuke and Sun let go, just as a group of shinobi flickered in at the front of the room. In the middle was pretty intimidating-sized man with a bandanna on his head.

"Alright, ya brats! Take a seat, and make sure it's well enough away from your teammates! And as for you three from Oto, listen to Pinkie if you don't to get booted out right now." he barked out. "I'm Ibiki, and your proctor for this exam."

They quickly took their seats, with thankfully only a few minor issues with those that didn't entirely want to listen.

As papers were being handed out, Ibiki spoke again. "Now that you lot are seated, we can begin. As you can see, your first test is a written one. However, there will be a few rules to follow. They boil down to 'If you're caught cheating three times in one hour, you're out.' So you better hope you're good with your brain, otherwise..."

He left it hanging, not needing to say anything else. Although he did add "Have fun." after a bit.

While Sakura and Sun didn't have to worry, all of Team 7 quickly figured out what Ibiki had meant. Among their friends, the couple were the only ones that didn't need to cheat at all. In regards to everyone else, they had to cheat without getting caught three times.

And when Sun cracked his back loud enough to be heard, he noticed various methods that were being used to cheat subtly. Special mirrors used by Tenten and Lee, bloodlines used by the Hyuga cousins and Sasuke, clan/special abilities used by just about everyone else. The biggest question on his mind, though, was _Did Pinkie set those up and let Tenten and Lee know? Or did they do all the work?_

At any rate, he finished his test and pulled out his notepad to continue working on the story he was making with Sakura. He then heard a throat clear.

"It's for a story I'm trying to write with my girlfriend." He explained. "We wanted to do something about Icha-Icha being so popular when it's nothing but trash. I can show you if you want."

Ibiki walked forward and took a look, then nodded. "It checks out. Just let us know before hand next time."

"If there is a next time." Sun noted. "I could make it through this time around."

"True. You _could_." Ibiki begrudged before walking away, throwing a kunai at a seemingly random examinee. "You and your teammates are out of here, bub. So beat it."

Sasuke slammed his head on the desk loud enough for people to notice. "You just had to say that."

"Pinkie was near." Sun and Sakura said more than asked in unison.

Sasuke nodded just as music started playing through the overhead system.

 ** **[Michael Jackson – Beat It]****

The reactions were various. Some were confused until they learned about Pinkie, some started bouncing to the beat, while the ones that knew Pinkie groaned at the choice of song.

Although the few who knew enough about Ibiki chuckled a bit, thinking it to be oddly fitting for the man. Somehow.

It also resulted in a lot more chunin hopefuls being disqualified, so it also surprisingly worked. Just not entirely in the way Ibiki wanted to do things.

It was only when the time limit was up did the music cut off, letting Ibiki breath a small sigh of relief at being able to do his job without being interrupted.

 ** **[End Song]****

"Time's up, ya brats!" he barked. "Now, there is one final question you have to take, but there are a few different rules this time. One, you either choose to take it, or you don't. No middle ground this time. Two, if one of you doesn't take it, the entire team is out of here. And three, if you fail...then you can't try again. Period."

"What?!" Kiba yelled, angry. "How can you say that?"

"My test, my rules. Deal with it." Ibiki replied. "So what it's going to be?"

" _Consider carefully. Are you in or out?_ " Sounded through the the overhead system right after Ibiki's question, this time getting giggles from those that knew the reference Pinkie was making.

Ibiki spared but a glancing glare upwards, otherwise focusing on the room. "Well?"

"I think it's pretty clear by now, Ibiki." Sun said as he stood up. "Those of us left in this room are not going anywhere. Pinkie already took care of those that weren't ready, so you're job here is done except for sending us on our way to the next exam."

Ibiki knew the boy was right, but didn't show it as he observed them all. Sun's words had the desired effect, with each pair of eyes staring at him being filled with determined fire.

He sighed. "Leave it to the Uzumaki to spoil my fun. For those of you still here...you pass."

Silence.

"...What?"

Sun explained. "The entire test was to see how well we can get information without being caught, while the final question was 'Is it worth it or not?' Is not only the information worth getting it back to base, but is the mission worth the risk."

"Go big, or go home." Sakura added.

Ibiki nodded. "Exactly. On many a mission, information is far more valuable than life itself. But you don't always know what information is valuable, and even then, you won't always get away."

He took off the bandanna, revealing a head of scars that gave a minor green tint to Sun's face. "I'm speaking from experience."

Pinkie whistled as he popped out of nowhere on a desk. "Dang. Someone must've thought you were a knife sharpener or something. Oh, and Anko's about to blast into the room as a cannonball."

"Wha-" CRASH! "Oh."

"Be thankful that I dealt with her banner, though, so it's just her." Pinkie added before vanishing into thin air, but not before a purple-haired woman in a trench coat stood up and growled at him, "I will find a way to get you back for my banner, kid."

"Yeah, good luck with that." Teams 7, 8, 9, 10 and Suna responded as one, causing her to sulk some from just how many people doubted her statement.

But she quickly shook it off. "Business first, then pleasure. All those that are still here, I'm Mitarashi Anko, and I'm the proctor for the Second Part. Meet me at Training Ground 44 in ten minutes, otherwise you ain't getting in."

She then jumped out another window, with the aforementioned teams not too far behind her. Albeit they chose a less damaging route than a window.

Pinkie did have one final piece for them, in the form of an apple for Gaara who savored the taste.

 ** **Hoped you like the little musical references I made with Ibiki. While he is more intimidating than punk, it just seemed to fit in my head. The smaller one was from**** ** _ **Aladdin and the King of Thieves,**_** ** **where Saluk, or whatever his name was, convinced the other remaining thieves to join him.****

 ** **Until then. Please let me know what you think.****


	17. Chapter 17

****Hello, again.****

 ** **To try and shake things up a bit, mainly because there is no real way to change the Second Exam from canon enough to truly be different, this time we'll be focusing some on Shy. Now, this might go against what I said before, but I ended up with an idea to help with later on.****

 ** **Specifically, what if the brothers were getting stronger?****

 ** **I will get back to Team 7 before the chapters out, though.****

 ** **If enough people like this idea, I'll see about how the Training Trip Arc that serves as a time skip can make a connection between the Shinobi Lands and Equestria/Earth. Sort of have them meet their respective canon counterparts or something.****

 ** **Perspective: Team 7, Shy****

 ** **Don't own MLP or Naruto, by the way.****

Training Ground 44

Shy stood a little ways behind Anko as she spoke to the crowd of Chunin Exam participants. He had instantly spotted his brother from among them, and exchanged smiles with him.

He wasn't entirely sure how, but he had managed to talk to the inhabitants of Training Ground 44. They would relatively keep to themselves as long as the shinobi don't go out of their way in provoking them. If they were to do so, then no promises that they wouldn't fight back.

However, one thing that confused Shy was how he was able to talk them into that agreement. Originally, he just had a knack for getting animals to listen. But recently, he occasionally thought he heard voices that he knew were not from any human he knew of. It especially happened when he was the only human in the area. And even beyond that, his own senses and reflexes were getting stronger as well.

Just what exactly was going on?

He then heard Sun's throat being cleared right in front of him. He blushed in embarrassment. "Sorry, Sun."

"Everything okay, Shy? You looked concerned about something." Sun responded.

"Not really. I'm more confused." Shy told him. "Recently, I think I might have been hearing animals speak like humans."

Sun raised an eyebrow, curious. "That's new."

"And not only that, my senses and reflexes in particular have been getting stronger as well." Shy continued. "I haven't really done anything to warrant this happening, though. So I wonder what could be causing this."

"Hmm, now that you mention it, I think I've been experiencing something similar." Sun said after a moment. "At the very least, my control has been going up, but I think I might've one time enveloped an object I was just thinking about and it started levitating. It stopped before I got a good chance to see. I wonder if any of the others have experienced something similar."

"You take care of the exams, brother. I'll talk to the others." Shy offered. "Good luck in there."

"Thanks, Fluttershy." Sun said, giving the boy a quick hug before returning to his team.

With that, Shy's work there was done, and he walked off to talk to Pinkie and the others to learn if anything has been happening to them.

His first stop was Ichiraku's, where Pinkie and coincidentally Dash were when he arrived. The rainbow-haired boy was taking a break due to lack of tasks to do, and idly struck up a conversation with Pinkie to pass the time.

"Hello." Shy greeted upon arrival, getting their attention as Ayame Ichiraku, daughter of the owner Teuchi, came for his order. "Just a miso ramen, please. I won't be here for long, I'm afraid."

"Will do." Ayame told him before going back to the kitchen. It was a bit of a slow day for more than just Dash.

"Hey, Shy." Dash and Pinkie greeted in return, before Dash asked, "What brings you here today?"

"Have either of you experienced something, um, strange lately?" Shy asked. "With your powers, I mean."

Dash thought for a moment before responding in realization. "Actually...yeah, I think so. One time, I added my Storm Affinity during a jog between towns, and instead of covering me like normal, it was _far_ more streamlined. _Everything_ was sharper. My speed, reflexes, senses. Well, not entirely all my senses, but still..."

"Sounds like the crystal tree is more connected to us than originally thought." Pinkie piped in, getting Shy to contemplate it.

 _Could that really have something to do with this?_ He didn't quite know what to think, but Pinkie's words did merit looking into.

"By the way, Jack and Rare are currently by the tree. You might want to hurry to catch them." Pinkie told Shy.

"Thank you." Shy finished the bowl, paid, then went off to the tree. He really wanted to hear what they had to say as well.

Sure enough, he found the two doing a bit of care work around the tree, which got Shy wondering _Did those 'fruit' get bigger?_

Jack was the first to notice him. "Howdy, Shy. What brings yeh here?"

"You two, actually." Shy said. "The rest of us have noticed something going on with our powers, and Pinkie said it had something to do with the tree."

"That would make sense actually." Rare remarked. "It would at least explain how I've been seemingly seeing a little bit more cloth left with each piece I make."

"That's mighty strange." Jack said, looking down at his hands.

Only to notice that his boots had grass clinging to them. Yet, when he raised each foot in turn, the grass slid off without a problem.

"The hey?" He asked out loud, getting his brothers to look at his feet as well. "Am Ah seeing things, or is teh grass actually acting like a clingy child?"

Shy knelt down and felt the grass as Jack showed what he meant. "Incredible. Human-like sentient plant life. Sun and the others have definitely got to know of this."

As if on cue, a massive explosion came from Training Ground 44, which they recognized came from Sun from both the chakra and his voice screaming "SCRAM, YOU OVERGROWN ROTTING WORM!"

"Sun's in trouble!" Shy exclaimed, running. "Something must've gotten into the the forest!"

"Or someone." Jack clarified, recalling a little detail as he and Rare followed close behind. "It could be Orochimaru. But why would he attack Sun, Sakura, and Sasuke?"

"We'll just have to find out, brother." Rare told him.

They met Pinkie at the fence, who told them that Dash had already gone inside.

Shy sighed. "Does he know where to go from here?"

"Does that answer your question?" Rare asked, pointing out Dash's return.

"Shy, Jack, you're here." Dash asked. "Any ideas on where it happened?"

Jack face-palmed.

"I'll talk to the inhabitants. See if any of them noticed anything." Shy said. "You go tell the Hokage. Jack, Rare, Pinkie, you three make your way to the tower. Try to use separate paths that aren't far from each other to maximize search area and allow the others to make it to help you in time. I'll send some form of word if I find something."

The four nodded, knowing that this was primarily Shy's territory.

They split off to do their respective jobs, each praying for Team 7's safety.

Shy quickly found a forest tiger. "Think you can help ask around about the explosion?"

The tiger knelt down, gesturing for Shy to get on.

"You at least know where it happened?" Shy asked, getting an affirmative growl in response. "Thank you."

He got on the tiger's back, who got up and ran towards where the explosion took place. And thanks to knowing the local area, it got there pretty quickly.

 _The explosion must've been stronger than we thought._ Shy noted to himself before asking the tiger, "What about the ones who were involved? Where's my brother?"

This time, a bird responded via flying in and grabbing their attention. Though Shy could swear he thought he heard something along the lines of "This way!" at the end of the bird's chirping.

Needless to say, he didn't have time to question it. He needed to get to Sun.

He found Team 7 holed up in a tree hollow, and they weren't in too pleasant shape.

Sasuke was completely down, while Sun and Sakura were pretty scratched up and exhausted, if Sun being asleep and Sakura being nearly so is anything to consider.

"Oh my! What happened?" Shy called out as he came up to them.

"Orochimaru." Sakura explained. "Stubborn snake managed to sneak in the exams and attack us. He placed...something...on Sasuke's neck which took him out instantly. Sun, with my support, barely managed to drive him off, but that pretty much took him out as well. He only had enough to help get us to this spot for safety before he fell asleep."

"We need to get you guys out of here." Shy stated, only for Sakura to shake her head.

"We can't. Whatever he did to Sasuke isn't stable yet, so he most likely can't be moved until morning." She told him. "We're in no condition to move without substantial help, with Sasuke not moving period."

"Then it's a good thing we're here as well." Pinkie said, having appeared out of nowhere with Jack, Rare, Dash, as well as Anko and a contingent of ANBU.

Anko came in to check on Sasuke while the brothers helped out Sun and Sakura. She saw what was on his neck. "It's a Curse Seal alright. We'll need a stretcher to move him right now, otherwise he's not going anywhere until it's stable."

"And the fastest route to stopping it is gone with Sun unconscious as well." Pinkie added.

"We'll just have teh come back for the night to be ready." Jack said. "This is already beyond the exams, so all that matters is getting all three to safety, even if the closest infirmary is the tower in the middle."

Even Anko and the ANBU couldn't argue with his logic, although they didn't have much of a choice but to keep them in the exams. Who knew what Orochimaru would do if they took them out now?

 ** **Can 'Lightning that flows like water' really be called Storm Release instead of just a souped up Lightning technique? Lightning doesn't change between thunderstorms and hurricanes, so how does it change from Lightning Release to Storm Release by just adding water? A more accurate term would be 'thunder shower.' For now, Storm Release is Wind + Water + Lightning, while Shock Release is Lightning + Water.****

 ** **Also, sorry about the length, but I've just been drawing a blank for most of the Forest of Death area, so I'm stopping it here and finishing it off next time alongside at least starting the Prelims.****

 ** **Until then. Please let me know what you think.****


	18. Chapter 18

****Hello, again.****

 ** **Okay, I'll keep it simple this time. The Training Trip period**** ** _ **will**_** ** **be them making connections to Equestria/Earth. Just not sure of an exact timetable yet. Also, to sort of set up for it. I'll start setting up omakes sooner or later that center around Equestria and Earth, sort of make occasional 'bumps' come from the Shinobi Lands and knock a few things for a loop in each. Nothing major like the Mane 6 losing or anything, though.****

 ** **Perspective: Team 7****

 ** **Don't own MLP or Naruto, by the way.****

The Prelims

Sunset woke with a groan, feeling the bed underneath him. _Wh...wha..._

His eyes shot open as he remembered what happened. He tried to get up, only to fall out of the bed and hit hard floor. "Agh!"

"Sun!" He felt Sakura's arms help him up, then embrace him. "You're awake!"

"Sakura? Where are we? Where's Orochimaru?" Sun asked, confusion in his voice when he saw his surroundings.

"We're in the Forest Tower." Sakura told him. "You had managed to scare the 'overgrown rotting worm' off. He didn't quite expect being blasted by literal sonic words."

Sun released a breath in relief, only to draw it back when Sakura said, "He managed to put a seal on Sasuke."

"Show me."

Sakura took him to the other side of the room, where Sasuke was. He instantly found it on his neck.

He turned to her. "I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask you to leave the room and keep most people out."

"What?" Sakura asked.

"I'm going to need every ounce of focus I can to at least fix that seal, let alone destroy it." Sun explained. "And unless they are willing to simply keep Sasuke down, then others are going to distract me. At the stage it is, I can't afford _any_ distractions."

Sakura paled, but nodded. "What about Dash and Pinkie? They're right outside."

"They'll do." Sakura let the two boys in as she went out. "You two, keep Sasuke pinned and stay quiet. This isn't going to be pretty."

They nodded and moved into position, Dash holding Sasuke's legs while Pinkie had his arms, somehow tying the sheet underneath around the boy's mouth while leaving the seal exposed.

Sun breathed to steady himself, then placed his hands over the seal and concentrated. A few moments later, the seal glowed and Sasuke started struggling, screaming through the gag pretty loudly.

"Just bare with us, Sasuke." Sun strained. "I know this hurts, but this needs to be done."

Even Sakura outside tensed at the clear pain in the Uchiha's voice as the process went on, tears coming up from knowing they couldn't do anything to draw away the pain.

After what seemed like an eternity, Sun finally tried to pull something away. A snake-like construct was coming out of the seal, but was fighting against his pull, trying to stay in.

"Come on!" Sun grunted out, anchoring himself to the ground as he pulled, his chakra subconsciously twisting around the snake up to the seal.

"You little brat!" It shot at him when it's mouth was finally free of the seal.

Seeing a chance, Dash charged some chakra in his mouth, and shot it at the snake's head, knocking it into position for Pinkie's foot to uppercut it and force it away. Coincidentally, he wasn't in the right position to do that normally.

No longer have to pull all of a sudden, Sun fell backwards and accidentally let go of the snake. But once it landed, Pinkie was there, dispersing the construct with a foot crushing the head.

"And that is that." He said as Dash helped Sun up. "Now what?"

"At the very least, Sasuke no longer has to worry about the seal causing problems." Sun said tiredly. "As for me, I could go with some food right about now."

As if to prove his point, his stomach growled, getting all three to laugh as they walked out, Sakura joining them on the way.

XXXXX

A few days later, the three members of Team 7 were standing in line with the other remaining hopefuls in an arena before the Hokage. Alongside them were Teams 8, 9, 10, Suna, Taki, Oto, Kumo, and Kabuto and his team.

Sakura, with help from Sun's brothers, had filled them in on what happened while they were unconscious, which wasn't all that much compared to what they found out afterwards.

Karin's team had pretty early got wiped out, making it much easier for the girl to defect.

Fuu's teammates made it through, but definitely couldn't go on any farther. Fuu herself was fine, to Shino's relief.

Alongside that, the Hokage and Anko both found out about what Sun did and interrogated him about it. Plans were made to see about doing the same for Anko herself.

Hiruzen cleared his throat. "It's nice to see so many with great potential. Unfortunately, this means that we will need to cut your numbers even further with a Preliminary round. The Chunin Exams aren't just to promote shinobi, but also to promote your respective village without the risk of war thanks to a conflict out in the field. To do that, we can not take too long with any part of the Exams, so a potential 27 participants will be nothing but problems all around. However, that isn't my job. Hayate, if you please."

A somewhat sickly man walked forward. "Thank you, Hokage-sama. The rules for the preliminaries are simple. Two random names will show up on that board, and anyone who doesn't show up must head up to the stands until their turn. Out of the two still down here, whoever wins is determined by me, so don't try and do anything such as attack your opponent after they forfeit or I already declared the winner. Understand?"

"Hai!" rang through the genin.

"But first, would any of you like to back out now?" Hayate asked. "From this point on, you won't cause trouble if you decide to. It's one on one now."

As expected, Fuu's teammates accepted the offer. Thought Kabuto was a surprise, getting Sun to look at him in suspicion.

Hayate nodded, letting them go, then looked up as the board he mentioned started scrolling through their names. It eventually landed on 'Yoroi' and 'Sasuke.'

"Will everyone except those two please vacate the arena?" Hayate called out.

They quickly complied, leaving Sasuke and Kabuto's teammate alone on the floor.

The Oto kunoichi moved over to Sun and Sakura. "Hello. I'm Kin."

"Sunset/Sakura." They replied.

The first question was somewhat unexpected. "Think you two could tell me anything about the cutie down there? I would consider Sun, but you don't need sense to know that you two aren't parting. But he looks like he's single."

Sun chuckled. "Yeah, Sasuke's single. Although, for the record, if you are considering trying to date him, I'd suggest proving that you're worthy of interest to him. Fangirls can kind of do that to a guy."

Kin winced. "I here ya."

"But if you get that, then you'll probably have him to yourself in a heartbeat." He continued. "Might actually get Pinkie off his back about his attitude if he got himself a girlfriend."

Kin blushed. "Well, it would certainly get some from Oto off of my back. Not the nicest place around."

"It it has the remotest connection to Orochimaru, then that's an understatement." Sun quipped, only to notice her stiffen in shock. "After all, since when has Orochimaru ever cared about others?"

"Hehe, right." She chuckled awkwardly, hoping Sun didn't notice a thing.

"What the heck? How is he stealing chakra?" Sakura suddenly asked, bringing their attention back to the fight.

Sun watched for a moment, then said, "He's been experimented on. I've just checked with my chakra, and it's not natural. Signature is Orochimaru."

Sakura looked at him. "Recent or past?"

"Just past." Sun told her. "Can't quite tell if it was willing, though."

Kin paled and shuffled back, not wanting to spook them. _How the heck did he figure that out?_

Thankfully for her, Sasuke had just knocked out his opponent, getting the proctor to say, "Winner, Sasuke."

The board came on again, bringing up 'Karui' and 'Choji.'

"Would the two mentioned come down so we can begin?" Hayate called out, getting them to do so while Sasuke came up to his teammates.

"How's the seal?" Sun asked.

Sasuke shrugged. "Didn't feel a thing, until I channeled a bit into it directly. It bounced back twice as potent, but not corrupted at all. Thanks for that, by the way."

Kin blanched as she realized something. _He had the Curse Seal?! What are they?!_

Sasuke then noticed her. "Hello."

"H-hello." She replied, only to berate herself in her mind at how she sounded. "I'm Kin."

"Sasuke." He returned with a small smile, until he noticed Pinkie's smug look being sent at him. He glowered right back, only to confuse Kin when she looked and didn't see anyone there. "Dang Uzumaki."

"Who?" Kin asked, confused.

"Pinkie was there and giving him a knowing look." Sun pointed to where the boy was. "My brother has been pretty spot on whenever he brings up something even remotely connected to the future, like who's with who."

Kin sputtered, still confused, "How? This is the first conversation we had!"

The entirety of Team 7 looked at and said as one, "He just knows."

"Winner, Karui! Would the two mentioned come down so we can being?" They heard, with it this time being 'Fuu' and 'Yugito.'

Time quickly passed for them after that, somehow. Both Yugito and Fuu knocked each other out, Karui and Yugito's teammate Samui won against Dosu of Oto, Shino won against Zaku of Oto, Kankuro won against Yoroi's teammate Misumi, Temari won against Tenten.

They finally noticed Pinkie pressing a stopwatch when 'Kin' and 'Shikamaru' came up.

"PINKIE!" Sun shouted, getting said boy to laugh and run off.

Kin wisely chose that moment to walk down to the arena to face her opponent, who sighed at the sight of her. "So I'm stuck fighting a girl. Troublesome."

"Was that supposed to be a sexist crack or something?" She shot, brandishing her weapon of choice, senbon needles.

Shikamaru stared pointedly at her. "And let my mother tan my hide? Not a chance."

"Are the both of you ready?" Hayate said. They nodded. "Begin!"

 ** **Decided on doing a cliffhanger here, partly because this caught me at a pretty bad time (work, weather, and my sister's newborn, among other things). However, I do have a little something extra for you. This will be progressively consistent to kind of go with the feel I'm trying to develop with it.****

Equestria

Inside a white castle, a lavender unicorn popped up from her reading in confusion. "Hey, Spike?"

"Yeah, Twi?"

"Did you just feel that?"

"Feel what?"

"The somepony had just made the time of an entire world temporarily move fast?"

"Uh, no."

"...Meh, it's probably nothing. Sorry to bother you."

"No problem."

 ** **Yeah, some of the events that the Uzumaki brothers partake in will start to affect things in Equestria and Earth as well. Of course, it won't be quite discovered until the full connection is made.****

 ** **Until then. Please let me know what you think.****


	19. Chapter 19

****Hello, again.****

 ** **Perspective: Sun/Sakura (mostly)****

 ** **Don't own MLP or Naruto, by the way.****

Prelims Part 2

 ** **XXPreviously, on 'Maelstrom Elements'XX****

 _Sun watched for a moment, then said, "He's been experimented on. I've just checked with my chakra, and it's not natural. Signature is Orochimaru."_

 _Sakura looked at him. "Recent or past?"_

 _"Just past." Sun told her. "Can't quite tell if it was willing, though."_

 _Kin paled and shuffled back, not wanting to spook them._ How the heck did he figure that out?

 _Thankfully for her, Sasuke had just knocked out his opponent, getting the proctor to say, "Winner, Sasuke."_

 _The board came on again, bringing up 'Karui' and 'Choji.'_

 _"Would the two mentioned come down so we can begin?" Hayate called out, getting them to do so while Sasuke came up to his teammates._

 _"How's the seal?" Sun asked._

 _Sasuke shrugged. "Didn't feel a thing, until I channeled a bit into it directly. It bounced back twice as potent, but not corrupted at all. Thanks for that, by the way."_

 _Kin blanched as she realized something._ He had the Curse Seal?! What are they?!

 _Sasuke then noticed her. "Hello."_

 _"H-hello." She replied, only to berate herself in her mind at how she sounded. "I'm Kin."_

 _"Sasuke." He returned with a small smile, until he noticed Pinkie's smug look being sent at him. He glowered right back, only to confuse Kin when she looked and didn't see anyone there. "Dang Uzumaki."_

 _"Who?" Kin asked, confused._

 _"Pinkie was there and giving him a knowing look." Sun pointed to where the boy was. "My brother has been pretty spot on whenever he brings up something even remotely connected to the future, like who's with who."_

 _Kin sputtered, still confused, "How? This is the first conversation we had!"_

 _The entirety of Team 7 looked at and said as one, "He just knows."_

 _"Winner, Karui! Would the two mentioned come down so we can being?" They heard, with it this time being 'Fuu' and 'Yugito.'_

 _Time quickly passed for them after that, somehow. Both Yugito and Fuu knocked each other out, Karui and Yugito's teammate Samui won against Dosu of Oto, Shino won against Zaku of Oto, Kankuro won against Yoroi's teammate Misumi, Temari won against Tenten._

 _They finally noticed Pinkie pressing a stopwatch when 'Kin' and 'Shikamaru' came up._

 _"PINKIE!" Sun shouted, getting said boy to laugh and run off._

 _Kin wisely chose that moment to walk down to the arena to face her opponent, who sighed at the sight of her. "So I'm stuck fighting a girl. Troublesome."_

 _"Was that supposed to be a sexist crack or something?" She shot, brandishing her weapon of choice, senbon needles._

 _Shikamaru stared pointedly at her. "And let my mother tan my hide? Not a chance."_

 _"Are the both of you ready?" Hayate said. They nodded. "Begin!"_

 ** **XXXXX****

Kin struck first, launching a few senbon at and around Shikamaru as she leapt back, the boy having to stick to using a kunai to not get hit. This set off the bells that he only noticed just as his kunai hit, putting him under a genjutsu that made multiple copies of Kin appear to Shikamaru's eyes.

Kin said nothing as she noted that working, sending another volley to surround the boy. _Just got to try and pin him down, then I can go in and aim for the-what?!_

The girl jumped to the side as Shikamaru's shadow suddenly raced towards her. _A Nara? Just my luck._

"I could still smell you." Shikamaru said for an answer, telling her all she needed to know. Taking out a different set, she decided to try and just incapacitate the boy before he got the chance to take her out. Unfortunately, he started fighting back with the occasional kunai or shuriken, each thrown at the right spot to force her to move out of the way.

 _I'm starting to wonder if I should just forfeit and accept the loss with dignity._ Kin thought just before her body finally seized up thanks to Shikamaru's shadow connecting to hers. "Proctor, I forfeit. Oto didn't exactly give me much else to work with that he hasn't already countered."

Hayate nodded. "Winner, Shikamaru."

Shikamaru released Kin, who walked back up to the others, only to flinch when she noticed her 'team's' expressions. _I really need to get out of Oto._

 _I can help with that._ Kin jumped and spun around in shock, only for Pinkie to appear, grab her, and suddenly bring them up to the Hokage.

"Jiji, this young lady would like to talk to you about an allegiance transfer." Pinkie said, letting go of Kin. "Just send her over to the farm once your done."

Pinkie then disappeared again, back to wherever he just came from.

Back in the arena, the next match up was shown: 'Kiba' vs 'Ino.'

As the two went down, Sun said to his teammates, "Pinkie's sent Kin to the Hokage. Should be able to get her out of Oto with that."

"Begin!" Sasuke and Sakura nodded, knowing of the connection between Oto and Orochimaru.

Down in the arena, Ino brandished a whip that got Sakura to ask, "Where the heck did she get that?"

"Probably Rare." Sun theorized. "The weave is his."

Sakura and Sasuke tried squinting at the whip, but it was already moving, so they had to take his word for it.

Not to mention it certainly showed that Ino had experience wielding it, seeing how quick she disarmed Kiba and pulled him off his feet. The blond rushed forward and chakra-kicked Kiba in the face, somehow knocking him out.

The Konoha teams sweat-dropped as Sun said for all of them, "I know Ino isn't jonin-level or anything, but seriously?"

"Winner, Ino." As Ino walked back up with Omoi, 'Hinata' and 'Neji' appeared on the board. "Would the two mentioned come down so we can begin?"

"I'm sorry, but I'm gonna have to forfeit." Hinata called out. "I'm just not at the right level to take on Neji right now. I'll just try again another time."

The collective group smiled at the girl as it then switched over to 'Lee' and 'Sakura.'

Sun gave her a quick kiss as Hayate called out, "Good luck."

"You need it more right now, considering who else is left." Sakura responded before walking down to face Lee.

And she was correct. Even if Gaara was much nicer than they had heard of, he still was a deadly fighter with his sand.

Thankfully, said red-head walked up as Hayate said "Begin!" to say, "Mother doesn't want me to kill you. She says to just stick with a standard fight."

Sun looked at him. "Thanks, but I do have a question: Why are you calling a guy 'Mother?' Shukaku's male."

Gaara didn't have anything to say to that, partly because he was a bit more focused on Shukaku for answers.

While that happened, Sakura's match was well underway, and Sakura was clearly on the defensive. While Lee was all about taijutsu, he was just too fast and strong for Sakura to do much except turn the terrain to rubble underneath them, taking away some of the usable area to try and keep him back. Didn't work quite as well as she hoped, though, thanks to the boy making use of it to move around instead.

 _Come on, Sakura. Think!_ She told herself through a few pants, having barely dodged Lee's latest attack.

That's when she felt it. " ** **Sigh. Weakling.**** "

Her eyes widened as she seized up and started to struggle against herself. It even got Lee to stop and stare in confusion and concern as she shakily walked towards him. "Sakura?"

"L-lee, kn-n-nock me o-out." Sakura grunted out as her skin tone and eyes started flashing. "H-hurry-agh!"

She fell to her knees and breathed heavy and fast from the internal fight. Her hair started changing as an all too familiar voice said through her mouth, " ** **You ain't beating me that easily.**** **"**

"Then try me, Blossom." Sakura turned to an approaching Sun, who thrust his open palm into Sakura chest. "Sorry, Sakura."

"Thank you...Sun." Sakura fell asleep as her body returned to completely normal. He gently carried her out as Hayate solemnly said, "Winner, Lee."

As they past him, Gaara spoke to Sun. "Might I ask, what exactly makes her so special to you, to the point that you would risk your participation in the exams for her?"

Sun didn't look at him as he replied. "People can do crazy things, when they're in love."

Even Shukaku was silent as Gaara told Hayate after Sun was out of earshot, "I forfeit my spot in the exams to Sparkle Sunset. I have reason to believe I'm not quite as ready for these exams as I originally believed."

 ** **[Michael Bolton – Go the Distance]****

All of a sudden, throughout the entire village, a song started playing that seemed to stiffen every back it touched. All of them, that is, except for Sun.

It barely registered to his mind as he carried Sakura, Kakashi leading him into an isolated infirmary room. "This should give you some privacy. At the very least, you can try and get some answers from Blood Blossom. I'll be back in a bit."

Sun nodded as he placed Sakura on the bed and sat down in a nearby chair, leaving the man to close the door behind him.

He held her hand in his up to his forehead a few moments later. "Sakura, I promise. I'll find a way to take care of Blood Blossom once and for all, freeing you from her."

He looked up as a dark chuckle answered him from Sakura's lips. " **No you won't. I may have been born from Sakura's darkness that day, but it wasn't enough _pure_ darkness to call me as anything more than the darker side of Sakura's mind. And as long as there is hesitation and rage, light and darkness, I'm not going anywhere.**"

Sun growled. "You lie!"

" **Am I?** " Blossom laughed. " **Will the Yamanaka say the same? The are experts of the mind, after all.** "

Sun stood up and pulled Sakura's body toward him. "Don't play games with me, Blood Blossom! This is my girlfriend we're talking about here! I don't care how long it takes, but I _will_ find a way to protect her! Even from you."

Sakura's eyes opened, revealing Blossom looking at him with a smirk. " **Nice sentiment. But you might want to make sure she's willing to go with it before you act like an idiot.** "

She surprised Sun by pulling him into a kiss, only to go back into Sakura and putting the girl in her place, waking her up. "Wha? Sun?"

"Not that I don't like kissing you, Sakura," Sun said, pouting a bit. "But I prefer doing it on our own volition instead of Blossom deciding for us."

Sakura couldn't help but laugh a bit at that, even though she had no real clue what Sun was talking about.

 ** **I know it's a bit on the anti-climatic/anti-action side, especially with Gaara, but I already had planned on a moment with Blood Blossom in the preliminaries. This is just how it turned out.****

Equestria

A large pony with a white coat, light-blue/pink mane, wings, and a horn on her head was walking around the garden, thinking about her sister still stuck on the moon. _It's been nearly a thousand years since that day, and yet still no further in helping her truly. Sigh...Am I doomed to lose my sister?_

 _"Don't play...with me...This is my...we're talking about...don't care...long it takes...will find...protect her!..."_

The pony looked around in confusion, not knowing where the fractured voice came from. However, it was pretty obvious from the tone what the voice was saying. She shook her head as she looked up at the sky.

"Luna. My dear sister. Please, just hold out for a little bit longer. Even though I have the servants, guards, and Twilight, they are not family like you. I know it seems hopeless, but for the sake of family, I can't give up. Not now."

 _Whoever that voice belonged to, thank you. Even the highest of us need to be helped along from time to time._

She didn't expect an answer back, let alone in a different voice. _I'll be sure to pass along the message for you, Tia-hime. And you might want to consider sending Twilight to Ponyville for the Summer Sun Celebration. The other five are already there._

The pony had a few things to think about for a while to come.

 ** **To all those who know enough of each series (plus this story), you should know just who these are.****

 ** **Until then. Please let me know what you think.****


	20. Chapter 20

****Hello, again.****

 ** **Sorry about the length, but my head's been in a bit of a mess lately. Been trying to clear that up. Anyways, this is just to help set up for the training month.****

 ** **Perspective: n/a****

 ** **Don't own MLP or Naruto, by the way.****

Turtles and Slugs

 _"You're going to need Jiraiya to help with that, as well as your training. I may be your sensei, but honestly my style isn't suited for the both of you. He would be a better fit."_

Those were the words that played through Sun and Sakura's minds as they made their way to one of the usual spots that Jiraiya could be found while he was in the village, which thankfully, he currently was.

Sakura in particularly was stressed. Ever since the Prelims, Blood Blossom has gotten pretty active, and it frankly terrified her. Sure, her other self hasn't done anything actual bad yet, but that was mainly because Sun and his brothers stopped her every time. _What if they're not there the next time?_

Next thing she knew, she was being place in Sun's arms by his chakra, and he was somewhat confused as well. "Sun, what're you doing?"

"It's not quite me, Sakura, but since it means I can carry my girlfriend, I'm not complaining." Sun said with a shrug. "Especially if it means she can calm down from her current stress."

Sakura blushed lightly in embarrassment as she snuggled into Sun's neck, causing the boy to laugh teasingly the rest of the way to the onsen. They heard a familiar giggling that got Sun to put Sakura back down and grin evilly. He snapped his fingers, and suddenly a giant hand made out of earth grabbed Jiraiya from underneath and tossed him to the women's side of the onsen, but not with sending an electric shock through the man's system making him unable to do anything to try and escape.

Sakura giggled as they heard the mixed cries of pain and anger coming from the other side of the wall as the earthen hand retracted into non-existence, only to stop when she heard "Serves the pervert right."

"Sun." was all she needed to get the boy to whip out his chakra and pull Jiraiya to them while calling out "Sorry, ladies, but we need him now."

A few minutes later, the three were outside of the Uzumaki house, with a serious and healed Jiraiya. "So you want to know if there is any possible way to stop Blood Blossom for good?"

The couple nodded, only to droop when Jiraiya shook his head. "Sorry, but I'm not the person you need to speak to."

They quickly perked back up when he added "The Kumo team are the ones you need. They can take you to their secret location for Bijuu Training. Turtle Island."

"Turtle Island?" Sakura asked.

Jiraiya nodded. "A remote island that all Kumo Jinchuriki have used to help learn control over their Biju. Even though she isn't a Biju, it's still pretty much the same concept. At least in theory."

"Well there is no harm in trying, now is there?" Pinkie asked, giving Jiraiya a quick jump-scare right before he growled out "Will you stop that?!"

Pinkie just giggled as Sun and Sakura shook their heads fondly at the boy. "By the way, the Kumo team is on their way here with Jack and Hinata, so you can ask them once they arrive. They bumped into each other while the two were out on a date, and one thing led to another..."

"We get it, Pinkie." Sun waved him off. "How long?"

"About ten minutes." Pinkie told them, then turned to Jiraiya. "Oh, and Ero-sennin, none of us are really suited towards any of the summoning contracts."

Jiraiya slumped some at that, though it was quickly replaced by a glint in his eyes when Sakura said "Doesn't mean we can't figure out other ways to communicate and provide reinforcements. Isn't the basis of the Hirashin space/time manipulation?"

Sun had a very similar glint. "Teleportation!"

The two males instantly went inside to discuss it, leaving Sakura and Pinkie to laugh at them.

Pinkie then hugged Sakura. "Now that's taken care of, I'm out."

At the exact time Pinkie said, Sakura saw Jack, Hinata, and Team Kumo walking up to the farm. "Hey, guys."

"Howdy, Sakura." Jack returned just as Sun and Jiraiya passed the window. "They talking seals in there?"

Sakura nodded. "Pinkie told Jiraiya that none of you were suited for summoning contracts, so they're working on one that focuses instead on transporting messages and, if possible, reinforcements."

"A lot of shinobi will like that." Hinata remarked with wide eyes, and she wasn't the only one.

Sakura nodded again before turning to Team Kumo. "On a different note, I do have need to talk to you guys. It's in regards to the little incident in the Prelims."

"You mean that Blood Blossom person inside you?" Karui asked, again getting a nod.

"Thankfully, she isn't actually evil or anything, but she's quite willing to kill someone in comparison to just turning them black and blue." Sakura explained. "When we asked Jiraiya, he said that Kumo's Turtle Island is the best place to deal with this for good."

Karui face-palmed in frustration. "Just how much does that guy know?!"

Her answer came in the form of a note flying into her face that read, ' _He IS Konoha's Spymaster, remember?_ '

She growled at it as the Konoha citizens laughed. After they calmed down, another showed up for Jack. ' _The Hokage wants to see you and Dash, Jack._ '

Hinata whined a bit at that, though she quickly stopped after Jack kissed her and said, "Unless it's for eh mission, Ah'll be quick. Ah promise."

Jack went off with a blush and a trail of giggles when she told him "You better. I want my snuggles."

He could swear he heard Sakura remark "You're such a cuddlebug, Hinata." only to hear his girlfriend practically shout "And proud of it!"

When he arrived at the Hokage's Office, he found Dash waiting there already. "Yah called fer us?"

"Sorry, Jack, but yes." The Hokage started. "I know this would normally be done by shinobi, but I thought this one would be better off done by the two of you. I want you two to bring back Senju Tsunade and her student, Shizune."

"Your old hag of a former student that can still flick Ero-sennin halfway through a mountain?" Dash clarified, to Hiruzen's somewhat amused nod.

"Just don't say that to her face, particularly the 'old hag.'" he told the two. "Unfortunately, she is rather vain and short-tempered."

"And yah think the two of us have the best chance teh bring her back?" Jack asked, eyebrow raised.

"Pinkie confirmed my choices." was all he needed to say for the two boys to understand. Pinkie thought they were the best for it, and they just had to figure it out.

At least besides the obvious Jack having Mokuton and Dash having super speed.

"You can alert the others first before you head out with Big Mac." Hiruzen told them. "Might be able to placate them with the knowledge they could try and learn from Tsunade when you're back."

"Yeah, they would love that." Dash quipped, smirking at Jack. "Probably be able to help when they dish out those swimsuits I caught glances of with each of them."

Jack stiffened and turned full-body crimson at the idea of Hinata in a swimsuit, getting the others in the room to laugh good-naturedly. He was given an out when Hiruzen added "Too bad you can't say the same yet, Dash, unless a certain foreign red-head finally caught your eye."

"WHY DOES EVERYONE THINK THAT?!" Dash's reaction certainly calmed his blush down from his own laughter.

After being dismissed, Dash quickly went to let their brothers know while he went back to the farm and told them. He found Hinata and Sakura talking with Team Kumo while working on a few of the trees. "Howdy, ya'll."

Instantly, Hinata was hugging him close, only to have to hear from him, "Sorry, Hinata, but Dash and Ah actually have eh mission. The Hokage wants us teh bring back Tsunade."

Both girls squealed, quickly proving Dash right when they started talking about how to convince Tsunade to train them. At least until Karui reminded Sakura about Turtle Island.

"Blood Blossom?" Jack asked. At their nods, he said, "Just make sure Sun and the Hokage know before yeh head out. Cover yer bases n' all."

He then moved over to the stable where Big Mac was. "Either way, Ah'll be seeing y'all later."

A few minutes later found him leading Big Mac to the front gates where Dash was waiting. "Took ya long enough, Jack."

"Not everyone can move fast, Dash." Jack retorted playfully, having done this byplay before. "You got a location yet?"

"Jiraiya relayed through Gramps to keep an eye on Tanzaku Gai." Dash answered. "There should be a big gambling shindig going on there within the next week or so, so even if we arrive before her, we should be able to just wait until she shows up."

Jack nodded. "We can work out how teh convince her on the way. And if nothing works, then we can try and get her in ah bet that she can't get out of."

Jack got on Big Mac and urged him on, Dash keeping pace.

 ** **The perspective is as it is mainly because during the month, I'll be having both 'missions' going on at the same time. Sun and Sakura will be going to Turtle Island while Jack and Dash will be getting Tsunade and Shizune.****

 ** **Until next time. Please let me know what you think.****


	21. Chapter 21

****Hello, again.****

 ** **The title is just a joke, meant to represent how Jiraiya and Tsunade must ultimately start feeling during this chapter. As for the perspective, that's to give you an idea of how chapters for the moment will be going.****

 ** **Perspective: Sun/Sakura, Jack/Dash, various among the other brothers and Sasuke****

 ** **Don't own MLP or Naruto, by the way.****

...I hate you.

 ** **XXTurtle IslandXX****

"You two ready?" Jiraiya asked Sun and Sakura the next morning when they plus Team Kumo were all at the village gates. At their nods, he turned to the Kumo nins. "While I'll lead to Kumo, you all will need to take charge from there to get us to Turtle Island. The exact location, I admit, I haven't found yet."

"FINALLY! SOMETHING HE DOESN'T KNOW!" Karui cried out, to her teammates' amusement.

Jiriaya's deadpan didn't help his case to them.

Sakura suddenly shivered and said "Mind if we go ahead and be on our way now?"

"About we head off with a song?" Sun asked, seemingly out of the blue if they didn't already know the little quirk of the Uzumaki brothers in cases like this.

[Phil Collins – On My Way]

"What so-" Jiraiya started to ask, only to hear " _Tell everybody I'm on my way. New friends and new places to see._ " "You got to be kidding me."

Team Kumo laughed some at the man's reaction as they started moving, only to turn to confusion as the trip went by a lot faster than they expected.

Granted, the sun was set in the right place as though it was a normal trip, but it certainly didn't feel like it to them.

First, they were heading out from Konoha in the morning, only to find themselves stepping into the Valley of the End late afternoon. A few steps (or rather song lines), they were crossing the border out of Hi no Kuni in the morning, only to appear in Kaminari no Kuni in the exact same manner at about noon.

By the time they found themselves in front of their village gates, they were confused beyond anything before. At least until a note showed up saying ' _Your welcome for making your trip a two-day montage._ '

"Montage?" Samui asked out loud.

"Pinkie." Jiraiya, Sun, and Sakura said in unison, as though that was all that was needed to be said. And it was.

"This is going to happen a lot, isn't it?" Omoi asked, only to find another note.

' _Maybe. ;p_ '

[Song End]

"Though he does know better than to interrupt really serious moments." Sun told them. "So unless he actually sends one while talking to the Raikage or something, you'll probably not find one of those popping up all that often."

All three breathed a sigh of relief, only to groan when another showed up. ' _Doesn't mean I can't send them other times._ '

"Let's just...get moving."

 ** **XXTsunade RetrievalXX****

Jack and Dash quickly arrived at Tanzaku Gai, finding the place partway to being ready for the gambling event they were told about.

"Think we should split up and search?" Dash asked, but Jack shook his head.

"Not yet. We should get settled in, first. That way we have a place for the night in case she's not here yet." Jack replied. "Afterwards, we can search."

Dash shrugged and followed Jack to an inn with an adjoining stable.

Checking in, however, left them open to the people finding out about them, leaving Dash to be the one to try and look around for their target as Jack kept them occupying by selling apples and apple-based products that came from Pinkie and the farm.

It was when Dash checked the nearby castle that he found an older blond woman alongside a black-haired woman and a pig that fit the descriptions perfectly. _Gotcha._

He crept up to them, only to stop as he heard the younger say "Tsunade-sensei, I think someone's here with us."

"You and me both, Shizune." Tsunade replied, turning to where Dash was. "Come on out. We know you're there."

Dash sighed and walked out, getting Shizune to gasp and Tsunade's eyes to widened. "So I guess you know why I'm here of all places as well, correct?"

"Us." Tsunade said angrily to Dash's nod.

"The Hokage wants you back, and Jack and I are to escort you." Dash told them. "Though we can always go with hogtying you on Big Mac and dragging you back, but all the same, the time has come for you to stop running from whatever it is you're running from."

"Too bad I'm not going back!" Tsunade yelled as she charged at Dash, only for the boy to lean out of the way and trip her. Landing in a heap, Dash couldn't help but look at her in disappointment.

"You've let yourself go, Tsunade." He told her. "Too the point it's obvious why Jack and I were the ones sent to get you. You're not just running from your duty and your village, but from who you are personally."

"SHUT UP!" Tsunade swung her fists, but missed again. Her anger was quickly stopped when she found herself suddenly flying from a Storm-enhanced kick out of the castle.

She worked herself up as Dash walked to her, saying "So many lives you could've helped, especially Naruto's, and yet they didn't get that help because of whatever is keeping you weak. So what's keeping you weak?!"

He flared his chakra, surrounding himself in a centralized storm as he prepared to fight.

Shizune, having come up behind him, had other plans. "Naruto?"

"Uzumaki Naruto, son of Uzumaki Kushina and Namikaze Minato." Dash answered. "And technically the father of me and my brothers, because we are each a part of what he was when he was here. But he's been gone for a while, because no one was there to protect him from monsters like Fumihiro."

That stunned Tsunade once again, this time giving Jack enough time to show up and turn the stun to complete utter shock when he restrained her with Mokuton. "M-Mokuton?!"

"Ah thought we were suppose teh do this together, Dash." Jack said.

"They noticed me when I found them." Dash replied with a shrug as he powered down. "Also, since when could you turn grass to wood?"

Jack wasn't the only one who blinked in confusion at that, only to look down at Tsunade's feet and see that sure enough, the grass was where the wood was coming from, not the ground.

Jack scratched his head. "Ah'll be."

Dash then added what he discovered. "I also know why we were sent to find her, brother. Something happened to her, and she's been running from it while trying to deny it ever since."

Jack looked into Tsunade's eyes for a few moments, then picked her up, still restrained. "Let's get ter a more private setting. Then we'll talk."

 ** **XXKonohaXX****

Pinkie was humming merrily to himself as he set up the outline of another streamer between buildings, prepping for when he sets his Party Bombs off the night before the big day.

…"What? Did you think I was going to leave this all up for people to see before they should? That would ruin part of the fun."

A nearby ANBU had no idea who Pinkie was just talking to.

A few minutes later had the boy bouncing down to the streets, right in front of Karin, Hinata, and Ino. "Hello, ladies."

The only who jumped at that was Karin, while Hinata and Ino both said "Hello, Pinkie."

"Wha-where did-?" Karin started, still surprised as she looked up to where she at least thought Pinkie came down. Until he pointed in a direction that got her to say "But that's impossible!"

"Not if you're Pinkie." Ino giggled, and she wasn't the only one. "He's been known to do stuff like this. We told you that."

"Well yeah, but-" Karin tried to say, but ultimately trailed off because she was getting no where except embarrassed.

Luckily for her, Pinkie changed the subject. "So how've you been, Karin? How's life in Konoha treating you?"

"Much better than Kusa, to be honest." She replied. "Now, don't get me wrong, it's a nice enough place as places go, but...um..."

"Konoha is just better in your opinion?" Pinkie offered. When she nodded, he waved her off. "You're not the first in history to think their new home is better than their old one. It isn't like we're trying to force you to pick us after all...unless you want me to go into ' _Your Welcome._ '"

"Oh please no!" Ino groaned. "Not that song."

Hinata looked at the blond. "What's so bad about it?"

Ino shot a deadpan right back. "You mean besides the fact that every time you get the chance, you bring it up?"

Hinata pouted as Karin leaned to Pinkie. "Any ideas?"

She blinked when she noticed an apple-cinnamon bun and a crystal figurine of Ino in his hands, wondering how they got there when she knew his hands were empty just a moment ago.

Hinata was the first to notice, smelling the bun with raw glee, with Ino right behind her, catching sight of the figurine. Ino gently took hold of it and asked "Where did you get this?"

Her answer was Pinkie's fingers. 3...2...1... "THAT WAS SUPPOSED TO BE A SURPRISE FOR INO, PINKIE, AND I WAS SUPPOSED TO GIVE IT TO HER!"

"Does that answer your question?" Pinkie asked rhetorically, right before Ino ran off. "Looks like Rare better pucker up good this time, otherwise she's gonna knock him out with their next kiss."

Karin raised an eyebrow. "She's that much a narcissist?"

But Pinkie shook his head. "It's more the fact that he actually made a figurine of her from crystals to surprise her. One thing that's pretty common with most women is that, while they may seem at times the opposite, they just really like being treated like both a real woman and something special. My brother just did that."

As if to prove his point, they heard Ino cry out "THANK YOU!" followed by a faint thud, causing Karin to whistle absentmindedly. _Any chance I can get in on that action?_

"You're going to have to see what the author will do first, Karin." Pinkie told her. "Though if you do end up joining, then it'll probably be with me."

Karin looked at him, confused as he walked away saying "Well, gotta get back to the stand. Those pastries aren't gonna make themselves."

She was still confused when Hinata led her away.

 ** **I know some parts might seem a bit rushed, but it was the best I got. Plus it helps to get to the better parts, such as when Sakura confronts Blossom.****

 ** **Also, while I said I would be having her and the Tsunade Retrieval going on at the same time, I never said I wouldn't have pieces from Konoha as well.****

 ** **Until next time. Please let me know what you think.****


	22. Chapter 22

****Hello, again.****

 ** **Before you get on my case about it, the training month isn't quite as over as some parts might portray (though Turtle Island should be pretty obvious). After all, times like the Tsunade Retrieval do have some pretty big fights as well.****

 ** **Though, at least with Sasuke and Kin, it's more of a normal relationship with them. One of the biggest things really on their minds is that this is more or less their**** ** _ **second**_** ** **meeting, so they don't see just how a relationship between them could truly work. Dash and Karui, on the other hand, are just two clashing impulses, so they haven't quite got to the same point yet and are still stuck on 'Me and him/her? ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR MIND?!'****

 ** **Perspective: Sun/Sakura, Jack/Dash, various among the other brothers and Sasuke****

 ** **Don't own MLP or Naruto, by the way.****

Starting to see

 ** **XXTurtle IslandXX****

Sun idly read a book while looking around the room they were staying in, at least until they could talk to the Raikage, Sakura resting her head on his shoulder while one arm was wrapped around the girl. It was all he could really do to help keep her calm, especially after she had started twitching with an anxious look on her face as they had arrived at the inn.

It also didn't hurt that he was giving off minute traces of calm-inducing chakra while he was at it.

Jiraiya was out at that moment trying to get them in to see the man, but when their destination was mentioned, people were rather tight-lipped and guarded. _Just how valuable to Kumo_ is _Turtle Island?_

His thoughts were interrupted when Jiraiya returned, catching their attention. "It's not gonna be for a few hours, but I managed to get us in to see him."

"With how they've been, how did you manage to make it work?" Sun asked, before glowering at the man. "It wasn't one of your so-called books, was it?"

Jiraiya glared back for a moment before speaking. "It was the full truth of our reason for being here that did it, actually. A knows the full consequences of not having full control of your personal demon, thanks to the two resident Jinchuriki, so he's willing to help Sakura with Blossom as well. He just wants to speak with Sakura before we actually head out to the island."

Sakura looked a bit nervous at that, but stayed strong this time. "I guess that works."

Sun hugged her tighter for reassurance, though part of it was for him as well. "At least we're making progress, Sakura. And when this is over, I have a little surprise for you."

She looked at him in curiosity, but Sun wasn't budging, getting a slight nostalgic chuckle from Jiraiya. "You really got it bad for each other, don't you?"

"One thing that me and my brothers agree on about love," Sun told him, "is that while 'I love you' is good reassurance, anyone can say and not necessarily mean it. We're better off proving said love instead of risking overuse and thus, lack of appeal."

He kissed Sakura on the forehead. "That is why I'm here. To show that Sakura isn't as alone as she might think from the fear this brings her. That someone is able to show her that she is loved when she needs it the most."

While Sakura blushed and tried to bury her face in his chest, Jiraiya looked on with a surprisingly somber expression on his face. _Is it really that simple?_

Thankfully, for the man, the couple didn't notice fast enough before he shook it off. No use reminiscing in regret.

Thankfully, he did have something to keep them occupied until it's time to speak with A. "You two do know that there is a library in town, right? With potential new books to read?"

He didn't even finished before the pair disappeared, leaving dust trails behind them. He chuckled in amusement. "Oh, so predictable."

He then turned around, locking the door on his way out. "And now for a few drinks to clear my head. Though if this is any remote indicator, Sakura isn't going to be the only person dealing with a personal demon on this trip."

 ** **XXTsunade RetrievalXX****

Dash tapped his foot impatiently as Jack and Tsunade simply stared at each other, Shizune looking at them both nervously.

Despite what Jack had said, they had been in relative silence for a few hours now, and the rainbow-haired boy was having trouble keeping himself contained. At least until Shizune asked him, "Um, Dash? Is you-"

"My hair natural?" Dash finished for her, getting her to nod. "Yep, though no one knows how. The Harunos, among others, can be explained by genetics, but me in particular...still looks good, though."

Jack quickly threw a smirk at Dash. "Better hope Karui doesn't hear yeh flirtin' with another woman, bro."

Dash face-faulted and growled back "We're not together, ya idiot!"

Jack just raised a teasing eyebrow at him before turning back to Tsunade. "Could'a fooled meh."

Dash's growl grew in volume.

"Though that does give meh an idea." Jack said. "Seeing as you're supposed teh be teh best medic in teh world, so just who was it ya lost?"

"What's it to you, gaki?" Tsunade retorted, just as Shizune answered, "My uncle and her brother."

"And yeh didn't think that there was anything worth living fer anymore," Jack gestured towards Shizune. "when yeh got a reason right here."

Tsunade looked at Shizune, who was somewhat confused as well. "Shizune?"

Dash quickly caught on to Jack's exact reasoning. "The girl has done so much for you, and has stuck by you no matter what happened. Don't you think that your loved ones would want you to do the same for her? And that's without taking into account their own personal wishes."

"Exactly." Jack said, getting through to the woman, but could still see some lingering thoughts. "Let's put it this way: what would yer loved ones feel hurts worse, their deaths? Or yer stubbornness and pride?"

Jack walked out of the room, with a confused Dash close behind. "Think about it."

Once out of earshot, Dash asked, "What're we gonna do now, Jack?"

"All we can really do, Dash." Jack responded. "Hope that she makes the right decision."

That evening, when Jack was taking care of Big Mac, he found Tsunade walking up to him with a determined expression. "Answer me this, gaki. Just how did you and your brother know what I was going through without experiencing it yourselves?"

"All six of us have various traits that are both useful and not so useful." Jack answered. "Dash is loyal, but can be impulsive from time teh time. Ah, on the other hand, prefer honesty in all mah doings, but can come out as a form of stubbornness. But one thing that all of us have is teh ability teh see issues connecting teh our traits in others. Yeh were stubbornly running fer so long, yer mask to hide it was barely capable of doing its job. It all but consumed you."

When he finished with his horse, he placed a hand on her shoulder. "But thankfully, it's not too late to change things."

A few moments later, she shrugged him off as she told him "I expect the two of you ready to move out about an hour after dawn." before walking out, getting the boy to smile. _Now we just need to get back._

 ** **XXKonohaXX****

Sasuke sighed as he walked out of the onsen. "Man, I needed that. Kakashi-sensei cert-oof."

He stopped speaking as he accidentally walked into someone, but not hard enough to knock either of them down. "Sorry ab-Kin?"

Said girl recognized him as well, and blushed, remembering what happened during the Prelims as well as being much closer than then to Sasuke. She absently wondered if it was really such a bad idea. "N-no problem, Sasuke. I wasn't entirely looking where I was going myself."

Sasuke pointed behind him. "Well, if you're looking for an onsen, it's right there."

Kin looked and nodded. "Good to know. I'm still getting used to everything here."

The Uchiha chuckled. "Yeah, villages like Konoha can take time to learn about, even for those of us who were a part of said village since the beginning like me."

Kin raised an eyebrow. "I find that a bit hard to believe."

She changed her tune when he asked "Would you expect anyone like Shy or Rare to willingly go into the Red Light District for the 'entertainment' there? They're some of the last you'd expect to know anything about anything in there."

"Fair enough, I guess." Kin admitted, right before her stomach started growling a little, much to her embarrassment.

"Feeling a bit peckish, are we?" Sasuke gestured off in the direction of Ichiraku's. "How about we see what culinary delights from Ichiraku's will end up tickling the pickle today?"

Kin giggled a bit and accepted the offer, neither hearing a faint giggle that would've been eerily familiar to Sasuke in particular.

He did become suspicious when he noticed the knowing smirk on Pinkie's face as he took their orders. _I really got to figure out how to keep him out of my life, let alone my love life._

 _Good luck with that._ Suddenly coursed through his mind, as though Pinkie was speaking into it. But that was impossible.

Pinkie was not a telepath...was he?

The pair was alerted to company when they heard Ino squeal. "Sasuke's found someone! And they're holding hands!"

Sasuke and Kin both looked down, only to reel back blushing at the fact that they were indeed holding hands, much to Rarity's amusement as he hugged Ino. "Now now, darling, it's their first date, so we should cut them some slack. Okay?"

" **WE'RE NOT DATING!** "

"And now they're acting like Dash with Karui." Rarity quipped, getting a round of laughter at the comparison from those who knew enough of the details.

Sasuke growled in frustration, only to have to lower his head when Pinkie added in a conspiratorial mock whisper to Kin, "You might as well accept it, you two. You ain't getting out of a SasuKin pairing that easily."

Said girl couldn't help but start arguing with herself over whether or not the idea sounded like one she would go for. Was there truly any merit to the boy's words?

 ** **There are many different kinds of 'broken' out there, so it isn't like Sun and Team 7 are really the only ones that would be classified as such. And considering how they are in canon, Jiraiya and Tsunade have problems of their own, though Tsunade's are much more obvious, since they are the reason her retrieval came into existence in the first place (if she didn't doubt her ability after Dan and Nawaki, she would've most likely stayed in Konoha instead of running like she did).****

 ** **Until next time. Please let me know what you think.****


	23. Chapter 23

****Hello, again.****

 ** **For the record, at least part of the reason this is one of the last ones of the tri-split chapters is because I'm having trouble figuring out things for Konoha. So starting next time, the Tsunade Retrieval at least will be well and truly over (even though this time will have their arrival).****

 ** **Also, sorry about the delay. I claim writer's block combined with personal things.****

 ** **Perspective: Sun/Sakura, Jack/Dash, various among the other brothers and Sasuke****

 ** **Don't own MLP or Naruto, by the way.****

Turning up everywhere

 ** **XXTurtle IslandXX****

Sakura looked on, emotionless at the bow of the ship, and absently rubbing her arm as her mind replayed everything that had happened so far.

After they had gotten in to speak to A, Killer B, who was in attendance, instinctively went defensive at Sakura, only for Blossom to momentarily influence Sakura and smirk darkly at the man. Thankfully this helped to show just how necessary it was to get to Turtle Island.

Hence the boat.

Though it didn't exactly hurt things when her arm 'flexed' during the meeting.

Blossom chuckled inside the girl's head, but it wasn't loud enough for Sakura not to ignore it, which was helped along when Sun hugged her, let her lean into him. "It's only a matter of time now, Sakura. We're almost there."

"I know." she replied. "But this failing isn't what's scaring me right now. It's what could possibly come from it, even if it succeeds."

She then looked at him, worry evident. "I mean, what would it end up truly doing to me once everything is said and done? Blood Blossom isn't a Bijuu, she's a part of me. For all I know-!"

"There could easily be nothing that happens to you, so calm down." He was stern as he said that, not about to really take anything else.

Unfortunately, this time Sakura wasn't quite as accepting of his reassurance as she broke away. "You can't know that!"

"But I can and do know you!" Sun immediately shot. "Plus me and Jiraiya know a lot more about seals than Blossom does, so even if something happens, we'll be there to deal with it. So will you stop doubting yourself al...ready, hold on a sec."

"Huh?" The sudden loss of tension from Sun threw her off enough for him to touch her forehead in curiosity and concern. "Sun?"

"Let's put it this way, the seal is not mine." Blossom pipped in, making her even more confused until she felt Sun pluck something from her forehead. "A seal?"

"One I think that's tied to you." Sun told her. "It's not much, but I can feel it trying to pull back to you."

"What?!"

"Yeah, but the strangest things are just what I've so far figured out from it." Sun added, looking her in the face. "I think this might be the cause behind your sudden bouts of nerves over Blossom."

When she thought about it, it made sense. _The possibilities of proper sealing are pretty endless._

But Sun wasn't done. "However, it was put on you _years_ ago. So why is it only activating now?"

Her shocked cry nearly caused the boat to fall apart.

 ** **XXTsunade RetrievalXX****

Jack and Dash couldn't help but chuckle at Tsunade in particular, the woman having never truly been exposed to their brother Pinkie before. And while Shizune wasn't all that much better, she was able to put a bit more focus on keeping Tsunade composed.

That and she was secretly having a blast watching Tsunade's reaction as well.

At the very least, transparent signs carrying various village/country symbols on them seemingly floated in place with a banner with corresponding kanji for that village/country overhead, while the gate was practically glowing point blank in their faces. FROM A MILE AWAY!?

Needless to say, Tsunade was left wondering just what happened to her old home after she found it wasn't a genjutsu.

It didn't help her nerves when she heard an echoing giggle that was clearly upbeat and happy, yet creepy at the same time.

When asked, the two brothers just responded as one with "Pinkie knows how to set up a party." which didn't help clear the air of confusion.

However, not too long afterwards, Big Mac stopped and looked towards the forest, getting Jack's attention first. "Sumthin's in there, ain't it?"

Dash instantly had his tonfa in hand. "Hostiles?"

Jack moved around Big Mac. "Feels like it, brother. Mac's tensin' up, and...Ah feel...sumthin'..."

He trailed off just as strange noises came from the forest. A few moments later, Jack cried out "MOVE!"

The warning was just in time as a screaming man was suddenly thrown between them, landing at the base of another tree.

Dash quickly moved in, knocking the man out as he tried to get up, only to notice the headband. "Jack, he's from Oto. But he's n-LOOK OUT!"

He instantly started running circles around Jack, Big Mac, Tsunade, and Shizune, generating winds that dispersed the fireball suddenly coming at them in the form of a rainbow colored tornado. A few moments later, he stopped to aim a kick back where the fireball came from, only to launch a blast of wind and lightning which Jack followed up with slamming his palms on the ground, sending streams of wood flowing into the forest.

Tsunade and Shizune prepared in case they were needed in the silence that followed, only for an explosion of pink dust sending a few people rocketing away with a very strange scream emanating from them.

Dash blinked for a moment, then grumbled "We could've handled them, Pinkie."

"I know." Said boy piped up out of nowhere from Big Mac's back, getting the two women to jump in surprise. He then turned serious. "But there was a reason why they were there. Oto's blackmailing Suna."

"WHAT?!"

 ** **XXKonohaXX****

Pinkie hummed a merry tuned as he cared for a few of the apple trees, guiding Konohamaru and Hanabi's class around to show them how it was done under the eye of Iruka. Like the rest of his brothers, he felt a calm in tending to life, but he was the only one that- "No spoilers, YatsuKat."

 _...seriously, Pinkie? Even with the preview some time ago?_

"That doesn't necessarily mean the looks will be the same or anything. So shush!"

 _I'm not the one looking like a weirdo having a conversation with the sky._

"But you are talking back."

The class looked back and forth between Pinkie and the sky in confusion, especially when they swore a loud 'BEEP!' drew itself out a few moments later, getting Pinkie to chuckle as he shook his head.

Hanabi looked towards Pinkie and asked "Just what was that about?"

Pinkie patted her head and responded with "Don't worry your cute little head about it, Hanabi. I was just addressing a matter. Now do you guys want to try caring for a tree or two? Gaara's wanting to talk."

A quick look towards the entrance showed said boy walking over, which left Iruka to organize the kids for the work as Pinkie moved to Gaara. "Everything alright, Gaara, or is there a reason for your darker-than-normal feel?"

"Temari." Gaara said after a few moments of silence. "She's being threatened by Oto."

Pinkie raised an eyebrow at that. "Lab experiment, or worse?"

"Worse."

"And the only way for her to be safe is to participate in the upcoming invasion, correct?" Pinkie rhetorically asked. "The answer is a lot simpler than you might think. When the time comes, don't let her out of your sight, particularly around your 'father.'"

Gaara looked at the boy in confusion for a moment, only to slightly widened his eyes in realization and nod just as a rainbow tornado shot up into the sky beyond the main gate.  
"Don't be a stranger, Gaara." Pinkie said before sitting down, just an explosion of pink dust occurred in the nearby forest, followed by Dash grumbling "We could've handled them, Pinkie."

"I know." Pinkie responded, causing the two women currently with his brothers to jump. He then turned the conversation serious. "But there was a reason why they were there. Oto's blackmailing Suna."

"WHAT?!"

 ** **The scream from the rocketing shinobi is Goofy's, by the way.****

 ** **And thus, with Tsunade's return, the three-way split is over. More than likely, I'll be focusing more solely on Sun and Sakura, mainly because the overall idea I have for what's coming up is thankfully more than these past few times.****

 ** **Until next time. Please let me know what you think.****


End file.
